Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by Thwaites & Reed, London, c. 1825
- Maker / attribution
- Thwaites & Reed (maker)
- Date
- c. 1825
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 15 in (38 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 188
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 188)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Thwaites & Reed - London (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 188), this is a bracket clock by Thwaites & Reed, made in London, England, dated c. 1825. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany. Recorded dimensions: Height 15 in (38 cm). The record is illustrated with 5 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 — P A Oxley
An excellent mahogany bracket clock of small proportions by this well known partnership. The 8 day duration five pillar two train fusee movement with anchor escapement and striking and repeating the hour on a bell. The backplate with engraved border, the makers name and incorporating a pendulum fixing point. The painted arch dial with makers name, Roman hours, blued steel hands and with strike/silent facility to the arch. The small mahogany arch top case of excellent colour with brass mouldings throughout, brass carrying handles to the side, brass fish scale sound frets and standing on four brass ball feet. Price: £6,850 / Height: / C.1825 Note: Thwaites & Reed were formed in 1816 when John Thwaites and George Jeremiah Reed went into partnership. The original Thwaites clockmaking family originated in the early part of the 17th century. Although the owners have changed over the years, Thwaites & Reed are still in business today.
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:Verge escapement
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