Clocks · Bracket clock
Four glass oak mantel clock, c. 1885
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1885
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- oak
- Dimensions
- Height 8.75 in (22 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 34
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 34)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Four Glass Oak Mantel Clock (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 34), this is a bracket clock, dated c. 1885. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: oak. Recorded dimensions: Height 8.75 in (22 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
A delightfully small and well proportioned four glass mantel clock. The 8 day duration single fusee movement of substantial quality with four tapered plate pillars and anchor escapement. Also with a finely made pendulum and transportation fixing point. The 3½" square silvered brass dial framed within a silvered brass square and with Roman chapters, blued steel hands and engraving to the four corners. The small oak case of typical four glass design with an ogee moulding. The top, sides, front elevation and rear door all with bevelled glass. Note: Small four glass mantel clocks from the 19th century are now becoming increasingly difficult to find. This is an unusual example as the chosen cabinet material is oak.
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific 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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