Clocks · Bracket clock
Early 20th century mahogany mantel clock
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- Early 20th century
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 13 in (33 cm)
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 41, lot 1232
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 1232, Fine Clocks & Related Items, Gardiner Houlgate (21st May 2026)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Early 20th century mahogany mantel clock, the 5.5" dial signed Samuel Louth, with Roman numerals and Breguet type moon hands, the French movement striking the half hours and hours on a bell, in an inl (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 41, lot 1232), this is a bracket clock, dated Early 20th century. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany. Recorded dimensions: Height 13 in (33 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
Early 20th century mahogany mantel clock, the 5.5" dial signed Samuel Louth, with Roman numerals and Breguet type moon hands, the French movement striking the half hours and hours on a bell, in an inlaid lancet case raised upon brass ogee bracket feet, 13" high (with pendulum)
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
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.
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