Clocks · Bracket clock
Verge bracket clock by Haughton, London, c. 1795
- Maker / attribution
- Haughton (maker)
- Date
- c. 1795
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 16 in (41 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 111
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 111)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Haughton of London verge bracket clock (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 111), this is a bracket clock by Haughton, made in London, England, dated c. 1795. 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 16 in (41 cm). The record is illustrated with 5 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 excellent late 18th century mahogany table/bracket clock. The 8 day duration five pillar two train fusee movement with verge escapement striking and repeating the hours on a bell. The backplate is engraved with a decorative border and a central engraving of the makers name. The silvered brass dial is of an unusual shape and engraved with the makers name James Haughton of Tooley Street, Southwark. The arch is engraved with twin subsidiary dials of a calendar and a strike/silent facility. The chapter ring depicts only Roman hours and features marching blued steel hands of excellent quality. The case is veneered with high quality mahogany and is finished with an arched top surmounted with a brass carrying handle, a brass bordered pad, brass fish scale sound frets to the sides and standing on four brass ogee feet. With lockable glazed access doors to both the front and rear. Note: It's unusual to see a dial of this shape and equally unusual to see subsidary dials, especially a calendar. James Haughton appears to have been working during the last quarter of the 18th century and into the 19th century. He specialised in high quality and unusual bracket/table clocks.
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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