Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket Clock by Robert Best, Royal Exchange, London, c. 1785
- Maker / attribution
- Robert Best (maker)
- Date
- c. 1785
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Stock no.
- 1226
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Pendulum of Mayfair (1226)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Antique Bracket Clock by Robert Best, Royal Exchange – London C1785 (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Pendulum of Mayfair (dealer), London (stock number 1226), this is a bracket clock by Robert Best, made in London, England, dated c. 1785. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. The record is illustrated with 4 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — Pendulum of Mayfair
A fantastic 7inch dial GEORGE III ormolu mounted flame veneered mahogany verge bell top ‘8-day’ bracket clock. The mahogany case with brass carry handle and urn finials, ormolu corner mounts and pierced upper frets, moulded base and brass bracket feet. 7″ painted arched dial signed Robt Best, Royal Exchange, London with strike/silent in the arch, centre alarm disc and subsidiary calendar at VI. The 8 day movement of high quality of twin fusee with verge escapement design and foliate engraved backplate, striking on a bell with pull wind alarm. Height excluding handle 19 inches. Robert Best was a top professional in clocks and watches in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Some account of him is listed here. Robert Best Watches and Clocks
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
The age of the deadbeat escapement, compensated pendulums and observatory regulators. Domestic clocks spread through the middle classes: English longcase and bracket clocks, French gilt-bronze mantel clocks, Viennese Biedermeier wall clocks, Black Forest painted-shield clocks, and the first American shelf clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Bracket, table and spring-driven clocks
Spring-driven clocks freed timekeeping from the hanging weight. The coiled mainspring, documented from the fifteenth century, made portable table clocks possible; to even out its declining force, makers used the fusee, a conical pulley connected to the barrel by a gut line or chain. Renaissance table clocks from Augsburg and Nuremberg — drum-shaped, square or tower-shaped in gilt brass — were luxury scientific objects, often with astronomical dials and alarms.
After the pendulum, English makers developed the bracket clock: a wooden case with a carrying handle, a short pendulum with a verge escapement, and often repeating work to sound the hours on demand at night. Later examples use the anchor escapement. In the nineteenth century, 'table clock' became a broad term for spring clocks of every nationality.
What to look for
- A fusee in the movement (cone-shaped pulley) and the type of line — gut or chain.
- Verge escapement with a short bob pendulum, often with a decoratively engraved backplate.
- Repeat cords or buttons that make the clock strike again on demand.
- Gilt-brass engraved cases and horizontal dials on Renaissance pieces.
- Case shapes: inverted bell, bell top, break-arch, lancet or balloon.
Dating clues
- Drum and tower table clocks: c. 1520–1650.
- Ebony veneered English bracket clocks with verge escapements: c. 1670–1800.
- Engraved backplates were usual on English clocks until c. 1800, then generally plain.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Anchor (recoil) escapement
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