Clocks · Clock
Suzhou Workshop: China Trade Bracket Clock, c. 1800
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1800
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- China
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- elm, enamel, pine, rosewood, wood
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 161085696
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 580, Fine Art, Antique, & Jewelry Auction Part II, Abell Auction (2023), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- Suzhou Workshop: China Trade Bracket Clock (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 161085696), this is a clock, made in China, dated c. 1800. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: elm, enamel, pine, rosewood, wood. 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
Lot description — Abell Auction
circa 1800; the painted enamel face decorated with floral roundel, the verso of face painted with Chinese characters, within an English-style rosewood case with secondary wood of either pine or elm, inlaid with brass and mother of pearl, the sides inset with glass panels and pierced fish scale screens, the back fitted with a glazed door, the British-style brass backplate incised with Chinese flowers, scrolling vines and a bird; the brass works with Crown wheel escapement, seven day time and strike mechanism and two bells for half hour and quarter hour strikes 22 x 11 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. (55.9 x 29.8 x 17.1 cm.) Note: similar (having the same case and finials) to a clock in the Imperial Palace Collection, Beijing. Provenance: The Estate of Richard Kelton, Los Angeles, California, purchased from Patricia M. Grove, Beverly, Massachusetts
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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