Clocks · Bracket clock
Verge bracket clock with alarm by Smith, London, c. 1795
- Maker / attribution
- Smith (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 497
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 497)
- Catalogue title (original)
- An unusual verge bracket clock with alarm by Smith of London (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 497), this is a bracket clock by Smith, 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 quality late 18th century mahogany table/bracket clock. The 8 day duration five pillar movement features a double fusee with verge escapement and striking and repeating the hours on a bell. Also with unusual passing strike on the half hour and rare alarm mechanism. The backplate is beautifully and profusely engraved with a basket of flowers and surrounded with scrolls and foliage. The movement retains its original verge and alarm mechanism. The dial has a separate silvered brass chapter ring engraved with Roman numerals and Arabic minutes. Also with a sunken name cartouche to the matted brass centre, original blued steel hands, square date aperture, brass spandrels to the corners and arch and a strike/silent facility. The mahogany veneered case is of the broken arch style and is surmounted with a brass bordered pad and carrying handle. The sides are decorated with brass fish scale sound frets and red silk. Both the alarm and repeat cords exit the case through small brass collets fitted into the case. Standing on four brass bracket feet. Note: English verge brackets clocks with Alarms are quite rare. Its possible that this clock was made for a bedroom or perhaps a hallway outside a bedroom. There are several makers by the name of Smith working in London at this period. Maker Smith 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:Anchor (recoil) escapement
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