Clocks · Bracket clock
Quarter chiming bracket clock by John Taylor, London
- Maker / attribution
- John Taylor (maker)
- Date
- c. 1780
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Dimensions
- Height 54 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 2990
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 2990)
- Catalogue title (original)
- QUARTER CHIMING BRACKET CLOCK – JOHN TAYLOR – LONDON (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 2990), this is a bracket clock by John Taylor, made in London, England, dated c. 1780. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 54 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
This impressive gilt brass mounted quarter chiming bracket clock with original verge escapement by the eminent maker John Taylor, who worked from Gloucester Street, London, and was renowned for making bracket clocks. Several of his clocks are illustrated in various horological reference books. The 8-day, 6-pillar triple fusee movement retains its original verge escapement and has a beautifully engraved back plate depicting an urn with flowers, scrolls, and foliage, also having Taylor’s typical double line engraving around the edge. Striking the quarters on a nest of 8 bells and each hour on a separate bell with a pull quarter repeat. This can be silenced by a strike / silent dial in the break-arch of the dial. The 8” break arch brass dial with subsidiary strike – silent dial to the arch flanked by pierced foliate spandrels. Silvered chapter dials with Roman and Arabic numerals and is signed ‘John Taylor London’. Original finely blued steel hands. Additionally, there is a brass centre sweep hand for the calendar, which is engraved around the inner circle of the dial. The inverted bell top case is magnificent in its style and construction and uses the finest flame mahogany veneers. The gilded mounts are again of excellent quality, and the top of the case is surmounted by 4 pineapple-shaped finials. The sides and front of the case have hand-pierced frets, and the rear door is glazed. Height: 21 ¼” or 54 cm (Including handle) Width: 12 ½” or 32 cm Depth: 8″ or 20 cm
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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