Clocks · Bracket clock
Chinese gilt mounted rosewood quarter striking musical automaton table clock, circa 1800
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1800
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- China
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- gilt, rosewood
- Dimensions
- Height 34.25 in (87 cm)
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 22, lot 1329
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 1329, Fine Clocks, Gardiner Houlgate (23rd May 2019)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Chinese gilt mounted rosewood quarter striking musical automaton table clock, circa 1800, the 7" silvered dial with foliate engraved centre, the surround painted with European style scenes of figures (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 22, lot 1329), this is a bracket clock, made in China, dated c. 1800. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: gilt, rosewood. Recorded dimensions: Height 34.25 in (87 cm). The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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 — Gardiner Houlgate
Chinese gilt mounted rosewood quarter striking musical automaton table clock, circa 1800, the 7" silvered dial with foliate engraved centre, the surround painted with European style scenes of figures and buildings in rural landscapes, the arch with an automaton waterfall backed by a foliate engraved silvered panel, the substantial three train fusee and chain movement with later anchor escapement, quarter striking on two bells and playing a tune at the hour on a nest of eight bells with eight hammers, the back plate engraved with foliate scrolls, further engraved within a cartouche above a stylised signature, the George III style case surmounted by a single storey pagoda housing a stylised figure of Britannia, above urn finials, corner caryatids and foliate and floral mounts, the moulded base on scroll feet, 34.25" high
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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