Clocks · Bracket clock
Vernis Martin bracket clock, circa 1770
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1770
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Dimensions
- Height 28.25 in (72 cm)
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 20, lot 1301
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 1301, Fine Clocks & Related Items, Gardiner Houlgate (24th October 2019)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Good Vernis Martin bracket clock, French, circa 1770, the 9" enamel dial signed Hré Lieutaud á Marseille with well pierced gilt hands, the similarly signed five pillar movement, no. 745 with anchor es (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 20, lot 1301), this is a bracket clock, dated c. 1770. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 28.25 in (72 cm). The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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 — Gardiner Houlgate
Good Vernis Martin bracket clock, French, circa 1770, the 9" enamel dial signed Hré Lieutaud á Marseille with well pierced gilt hands, the similarly signed five pillar movement, no. 745 with anchor escapement, silk suspension and outside numbered countwheel bell, the waisted case painted with summer flowers on an apple green ground and outline with gilt-brass foliate mounts, 28.25" high
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:FuseeVerge escapement
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