Clocks · Bracket clock
Quarter striking table clock by Wood, London, c. 1810
- Maker / attribution
- Wood (maker)
- Date
- c. 1810
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 25.5 in (65 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 37
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 37)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Quarter Striking Table Clock by Wood of London (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 37), this is a bracket clock by Wood, made in London, England, dated c. 1810. 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 25.5 in (65 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
An impressively large and high quality Regency mahogany table clock with quarter striking feature. The large 8 day duration triple fusee movement with thick brass plates and an anchor escapement. The hour is struck on a large bell to the rear of the movement and includes a repeat cord to the base of the clock. The movement also features a quarter striking mechanism which sounds the quarters on six bells which is mounted to the top of the movement. The backplate is engraved with the makers name and place of work, Robert Wood, Kent Road. The round white convex dial has Roman chapters and high quality brass hands and is again signed by the maker. The substantial mahogany case with high quality flame veneers throughout and with brass fish scale sound frets to both the front and sides which still retain their original gilding. There are also 4 gilt brass ball finials at each corner and gilt brass carrying handles to the sides. The full pagoda top is also decorated with gilt brass sound frets which is topped with a slightly larger gilt ball finial. Also standing on four brass ball feet. Note: Robert Wood of Kent Road, London is listed as working during the latter half of the 18th century and on into the 19th century. He appears to have been quite an inventive maker which some unusual clocks recorded. Table Clocks of this size and quality were rarely made at this period. Maker Wood of London
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:Verge escapement
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