Clocks · Shelf clock
Shelf Clock by William L. Gilbert Clock Company
- Maker / attribution
- William L. Gilbert Clock Company (manufacturer)
- Date
- 1845–55
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- United States
- Place
- Winsted
- Object type
- Shelf clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, mahogany veneer, white pine
- Dimensions
- 28 5/8 × 16 1/8 × 4 1/4 in. (72.7 × 41 × 10.8 cm)
- Holding institution
- Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
- Accession / object no.
- 1931.114
- Credit line
- Gift of Miss Luella Plummer
- Catalogue title (original)
- Shelf Clock (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (object number 1931.114), this is a shelf clock by William L. Gilbert Clock Company, made in Winsted, United States, dated 1845–55. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany, mahogany veneer, white pine. Recorded dimensions: 28 5/8 × 16 1/8 × 4 1/4 in. (72.7 × 41 × 10.8 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
Catalogue description — Yale University Art Gallery
Partially in response to the major economic collapse in 1837, Chauncey Jerome conceived of an inexpensive thirty-hour clock with brass works. Increased mechanization in the production of his clock design—punching out the wheels from thinner rolled brass and running the wood for the ogival-molded cases though a power-operated machine—contributed to the reduced costs. This clock, made by the William L. Gilbert Clock Company, used Jerome's production concepts.
Inscriptions & marks
"JEROMES, GILBERT, GRANT & CO. / BRISTOL CONN." printed on paper label
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific 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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