Clocks · Bracket clock
Ebonised striking bracket clock with bell top case by Joseph Lum, London
- Maker / attribution
- Joseph Lum (maker)
- Date
- c. 1765
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- ebonised
- Dimensions
- Height 51 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 2533
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 2533)
- Catalogue title (original)
- EBONISED STRIKING BRACKET CLOCK WITH BELL TOP CASE – JOSEPH LUM – LONDON (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 2533), this is a bracket clock by Joseph Lum, made in London, England, dated c. 1765. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: ebonised. Recorded dimensions: Height 51 cm. The record is illustrated with 3 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 — The Antique Clock Company
A wonderful proportioned ebonised bell top bracket clock with two subsidiary dials and verge escapement. The brass dial 8-day movement strikes the hours on a single bell, and has two subsidiary dials in the arch for strike/silent and rise/fall with the maker’s signature on an applied disc at the top. There is an aperture for the date above VI. The movement has the original verge escapement and strikes the hours with a pull repeat on a single bell. The fully engraved backplate is beautifully engraved with floral swags. The classic style of ebonised case for the period, with a curved bell top, gilded frets to the front glazed door. Brass centre carrying handle and ebonised feet. Joseph Lum: First set up a workshop in his home town of Chelmsford, Essex in the first part of the 18th Century. In 1745 he moved to London where he worked up until his death in 1770 although he’s not a well-known maker his clocks are very well made and are very high quality. Height: 20″ or 51cm (Handle up)
Provenance
Private collection U.K.
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:FuseeAnchor (recoil) escapement
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