Clocks · Clock
Charles Kirke for George Mitchell Pillar and Scroll Mantel Clock, c. 1830
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1830
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- brass, wood
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 197324800
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 124, WINTER FABULOUS FINDS AUCTION DAY 1, Amelia Auctions & Appraisals (2025), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- CHARLES KIRKE FOR GEORGE MITCHELL PILLAR AND SCROLL MANTLE CLOCK. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 197324800), this is a clock, dated c. 1830. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass, wood. 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
Lot description — Amelia Auctions & Appraisals
American (Bristol, Connecticut), circa 1830. Broken arch pediment with brass urn finials, slender turned pilasters, thin high legs, and shaped aprons, wood works with original weights, key, and pendulum bob, reverse glass harbor scene with an American sailing ship and Connecticut style Federal House, with interior label reading "Charles Kirke for George Mitchell, Bristol CT." Various repairer signatures on back of the dial, including an 1887 provenance of Sparta, North Carolina, a small town near the Virginia border. 31.25?h. 16.75"w. 4.5"d.Cataloguers' Note: Charles Kirke (1800-1865) made wood movements in the 1820s and 30s in Bristol before relocating to Wolcott, Hamden, and New Haven where he eventually turned to manufacture of brass spring driven movements. George Mitchell (1774-1852) was a Bristol merchant who oversaw case manufacture and procured parts and movements from various sources including Ephraim Downs, Atkins and Downs, and Charles Kirke. Most Mitchell labeled clocks are transitional 1830s half-column and splat type. Mitchell pillar and scrolls are more scarce and date circa 1830.
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
Mantel and French pendule clocks
The mantel clock — the French pendule de cheminée — is as much decorative art as timekeeper. From the late seventeenth century Parisian clockmakers worked with cabinet-makers, bronze founders and gilders (ciseleurs-doreurs) to create cases in Boulle marquetry, gilt bronze and marble, while the movements were often supplied by specialist makers. Clocks of the Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI periods, and Empire clocks with allegorical figures, set fashions copied across Europe.
The nineteenth century industrialised the type. The 'Paris movement', a standardised round movement with silk-thread or Brocot suspension and count-wheel striking, was made in huge numbers by firms such as Japy and Vincenti, and fitted into cases of every style and material.
What to look for
- Round 'Paris' movements with makers' stamps (e.g. Japy Frères, Vincenti, S. Marti) and medal marks from exhibitions.
- Suspension type: silk thread (earlier) or Brocot adjustable suspension (after c. 1840).
- Visible Brocot escapement on the dial in later clocks.
- Fire-gilt (mercury) gilding on bronzes versus later electro-gilding.
- Signed dials naming a retailer rather than the movement maker.
Dating clues
- Silk-suspension Paris movements: c. 1800–1850.
- Brocot suspension and visible escapements: after c. 1840.
- Exhibition medal stamps on movements give dates after the medal year.
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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