Clocks · Bracket clock
Musical bracket clock, ebonised wood with gilt brass mounts, Samuel Cleghorn, London, England, 1790
- Maker / attribution
- Samuel Cleghorn (maker)
- Date
- 1790
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- Ebonised wood, gilt brass, glass, with engraved inscription
- Dimensions
- Height: 62.8 cm; Width: 37.1 cm; Depth: 22.8 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- W.14-1965
- Credit line
- Given by the Science Museum, London
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number W.14-1965), this is a bracket clock by Samuel Cleghorn, made in London, England, dated 1790. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Ebonised wood, gilt brass, glass, with engraved inscription. Recorded dimensions: Height: 62.8 cm; Width: 37.1 cm; Depth: 22.8 cm. The record is illustrated with 4 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
V&A — Summary
On loan to the Judges' Lodgings, Lancaster
V&A — Physical description
Ebonised wood with gilt-brass mounts. The case rests on four brass bracket feet of irregular shape. At each corner there is a mount in the form of a female head from which hangs a trail of flowers and foliage. Above each is a brass flaming urn, with a fifth one, supported by a brass fretted decoration, surmounting the moulded oblong dome. This has a flattened swag-like mount on each side. A round-headed panel of fretted brass over crimson silk at each side with a brass loop handle above. A round-headed pane of glass at back and front. Brass face, silvered chapter ring and brass arabesques in the spandrels. Going and striking winding holes and a date aperture. Within the arched top a small Strike/Silent dial on the left and on the right a similar one marked 'Hornpipe, Lass Patty's Mill, Highland Laddie, March'.
V&A — Object history
Signed by Samuel Cleghorn above the dial, and on the inside of the door a label with the inscription 'Samuel Cleghorn', 65, Shoe Lane, 1790', printed in ink. Samuel Cleghorn is known to have worked in London between 1790 and 1808. On loan to the Judges' Lodgings Museum, Lancaster from 1987.
V&A gallery label
BRACKET CLOCK ENGLISH; dated 1790 Ebonised wood with gilt brass mounts Signed Samuel Cleghorn above the dial and on the inside of the door a label with the inscription Samuel Cleghorn, 65 Shoe Lane, 1790 printed in ink.
Inscriptions & marks
'Sam. l Cleghorn London'; 'Samuel Cleghorn, 65 Shoe Lane, 1790'
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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