Clocks · Bracket clock
Mahogany striking table clock by Benjamin Maud, London
- Maker / attribution
- Benjamin Maud (maker)
- Date
- c. 1765
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 51.5 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 2631
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 2631)
- Catalogue title (original)
- MAHOGANY STRIKING TABLE CLOCK – BENJAMIN MAUD – LONDON (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 2631), this is a bracket clock by Benjamin Maud, 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: mahogany. Recorded dimensions: Height 51.5 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 fine English spring-driven striking table clock in a mahogany case signed on the dial “ Benjamin Maud London ”. The bell top case is of classical shape for the period, with arched doors to the front and rear, and pierced mahogany sound frets to the corners with brass silk-lined fish-scale frets to both sides. The case is embellished with pineapple finials on the four corners and is surmounted by a brass carrying handle, while the clock rests on block feet. The corners of the arched dial are embellished by rococo spandrels around a silvered brass Roman and Arabic chapter ring, with an engraved centre signed “ Benjamin Maud London ”, date aperture and false pendulum. In the arch, there is a strike/silent subsidiary dial. The eight-day movement is driven by two spring barrels via fusees. It consists of going work with original verge escapement, rack hour striking on a bell. The last hour struck can be repeated at will by pulling a cord to the side of the clock. The back plate of the clock is beautifully engraved with matching brackets. *Pictures taken prior to restoration. Height: 20 ¼″ or 51.5cm (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:Anchor (recoil) escapement
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