Clocks · Bracket clock
Silver mounted bracket clock by William Baldock, London
- Maker / attribution
- William Baldock (maker)
- Date
- c. 1860
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- silver
- Dimensions
- Height 33 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 617
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 617)
- Catalogue title (original)
- A SILVER MOUNTED BRACKET CLOCK BY WILLIAM BALDOCK OF LONDON (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 617), this is a bracket clock by William Baldock, made in London, England, dated c. 1860. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver. Recorded dimensions: Height 33 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
Dealer description — The Antique Clock Company
A silver mounted and ebonised quarter striking bracket clock by William Baldock London. The small ebonised Bombay shaped case with glazed silver doors both front and back, with matched silver frames to the shaped sides, and silk lined, silver floral repousee sound frets, having canted silver inlaid corners with floral garlands climbing upon its surface. Chased silver feet cast as Chinese dragons with engraved wings and horns. The two front legs resting upon compressed buns which forms the main base. The top with silver pineapple finials to the triangular sound frets having a superb silver repousee high dome oval basket terminating in a chased pineapple finial. This highly unusual clock with solid silver mounts has an early 18th century feel to it including the fine silver work and especially the cherub mounted floral basket. We believe the case and mounts to have been a special commission to Baldock. A two train twin fusee bell striking movement with verge escapement and floral engraved backplate. The short lenticular bob pendulum with sprung steel suspension with rise/fall regulation and quarter strike upon 2 bells, signed Baldock London to an oval cartouche. The Bombay shaped brass dial with matted centre, having applied chased floral silver spandrels, with applied silvered engraved chapter ring with cross shaped half hour divisions and Roman hour numerals, having Arabic five minute divisions and diamond 7.5 minute divisions after the hour and before the half hour, having silvered engraved chapters above for strike/silent and fast/slow rise and fall regulation, and having unusual cut and pierced blued steel hands. Height: 13″ or 33cm **This clock is delivered and set up for free within the UK. We regularly ship clocks all over the world with our trusted Fine Antiques Packers & Shippers. Please ask for a quote should you require this service.
Provenance
From a Private collection USA.
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.
Read next:Anchor (recoil) escapement
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