Clocks · Bracket clock
John Thwaites London / Retailed bracket clock by Joyce, Lombard Street, London, c. 1803
- Maker / attribution
- Joyce (maker)
- Date
- c. 1803
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Lombard Street, London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- ebonised
- Dimensions
- Height 14 in (36 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 477
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 477)
- Catalogue title (original)
- John Thwaites â London / Retailed by Joyce of Lombard Street, London (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 477), this is a bracket clock by Joyce, made in Lombard Street, London, England, dated c. 1803. 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 14 in (36 cm). The record is illustrated with 6 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
John Thwaites â London / Retailed by Joyce of Lombard Street, London A superb ebonised bracket clock by this famous Clockmaker with unusual Arabic numerals. The double fusee high quality movement features five plate pillars and is numbered 3285 and stamped with J. Thwaites to the front and back plate of the movement. The hours strike on a bell and the repeat lever is in place although it has never been utilised. The backplate is engraved with the retailers name and place of work, S. & C. Joyce of Lombard Street, London and also features a substantially made pendulum with reversed regulation and transportation fixing. The white painted dial is signed again with the retailers name, address and very unusual Arabic numerals with minutes at the quarters. The original brass hands are of the complicated loop design very often used by Thwaites. The fruitwood veneered and ebonised cabinetwork of small proportions for this period features brass bracket feet, brass fish scale frets to the front and sides of the case and a glazed access door to the rear displaying the movement. Also with a brass bordered single pad and carrying handle to the broken arch top. Note: John Thwaites was a prolific Clockmaker and made a large number of clock movements for the well known Clockmakers of the time including Dutton, Allam, Barraud and Debois to name but a few. Records show that he made 23 clocks for Joyce of Lombard Street, London. John Thwaites was Master of the Clockmakers Company in 1815, 1819 and 1820. He is listed as working at 4 Rosamonds Street, Clerkenwell, London in 1808. From the serial number stamped on the frontplate of the movement this clock was made in 1803.
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.
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