Wall bracket clock

Description — British Museum

Wall bracket clock; iron and brass; weight-driven; verge escapement with balance; count-wheel striking; of transitional design it incorporates 'Gothic' features together with English 'lantern' clock features; dial is not original. Train count. Going train. Great wheel 64 2nd wheel 64 8 Escape wheel 25 6 Motion work Hour wheel pinion 5 (on extended arbor of great wheel) Hour wheel 54 Striking train Great wheel 64 Hoop wheel 64 8 Warning wheel 54 6 Fly 6 Countwheel 39 Count wheel pinion 4.

Curator's comments — British Museum

The following text is the entry for this object from the unpublished catalogue of pre-pendulum clocks by John Leopold, former Assistant Keeper of Horology at the Museum. This information is unedited and should be used accordingly. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx WALL CLOCK. Southern France, middle of the 17th century. Ilbert No. ---. Bibliography. Lloyd (1938) 9. Symonds (1947) pl.16, 17. Lloyd (1951) pl.4. HJ 95 no.1142 (November 1953) 716. Britten 7 (1956) 24. Exh.cat.Nottingham (1958) front cover (the clock was not in the exhibition!). Cat.Ilbert (1958) no.244. Dawson etc. (1958) 162 Lloyd 3 (1964) pl.9a. Britten 8 (1972) 24. Jagger (1977) 99. Britten 9 (1982) 25. Tardy 5 (1982) 224 (dial removed). Dawson etc. (1982) 56-7. White (1989) 500 ff. The clock appears in a photograph of a portion of the Ilbert collection, sent by Ilbert to T.D.Kendrick at the BM in February 1944 but probably dating from ca.1939 (see 1944,11-1,1). Analysis of great wheel and count wheel: White (1989) 500 ff. Signature: No signature or mark. At the top of the present brass dial a shield with the inscription * B * I M DESCRIPTION. General. Posted frame movement, constructed entirely of steel except for the wheels, which are of brass. The frame consists of four profiled pillars set diagonally and screwed to plates with decorative nuts. On the left side the top nut at the back and the bottom nut at the front have been replaced. The bars are secured by two round extensions at bottom and by wedges at the top. The spider with bell is sprung into holes in the top nuts (spider and bell are modern). The bottom plate has two holes along each of its edges, for securing sides, back and dial; in addition it has a rectangular hole which may have held a spring to load the striking detend. The top plate has similar holes for the sides and a single one for the back (at the front the dial is held by a wedge). In addition the plates have holes in the corners for hinged doors. Both the present dial and the back-plate are restorations, and there are now no side-panels. The top plate has a decorative aperture for the verge and a plain one for the fly. All wheels have four crossings and all arbors run in brass bushes. Dial. The present dial and hand are modern fabrications. The original dial was probably attached in the same way: two extensions of the dial-plate fitting holes in the bottom plate, and the top secured by a wedge in the top plate. The central butresses of the front pillars have at some time been partly sawn off, showing that at that time there has been a wider dial. The mutilated parts have since been carefully restored. Movement. Going train. Traincount: 5 ║ 64 64 ── ║ ── ── 25 (x 2) 12-hour ← 54 ║ 8 6 Great wheel pinned to the arbor. The wheel has been reversed, and its teeth are individually marked. Brass puley (replaced: there is a second groove for the spring-washer). Ring-click acting on the crossings. The pinion-of-report is a lantern of 5 cut into the end of the arbor. 2nd wheel: pinned to the arbor. Scape wheel: riveted to a collar (wheel not original); the original pinion is likely to have been 8 (compare striking train). The scape wheel is pivoted in a brass potence (restoration). Balance and verge new; its bottom end runs in a brass block and is supported by a steel block, the top is pivoted in a steel cock (all new; the cock has no locating pin, so that the escapement is difficult to adjust). Hour-hand wheel: friction-tight on the arbor, which is solid with the steel starwheel for unlocking. The wheel is a restoration with unexpected count (55 would be more likely). Striking train. Traincount: 4 ║ 64 64 54 ── ║ ── ── ── 12-hour ← 39 ║ 8 6 6 Great wheel: 8 steel lifting pins. Wheel pinned to the arbor. Brass pulley with ring-click acting on the crossings. The pinion-of-report is a lantern of 4 cut into the end of the arbor. 2nd wheel: steel single hoop, dovetailed into the band. The individual teeth are marked. Arbor and pinion replaced; the wheel is now riveted to a collar but retains traces of the original pin. 3rd wheel: pin for warning (there is a hole opposite, for another pin). Arbor and pinion replaced (the pinion should be 8, see commentary) and the wheel now riveted to a collet. Heavy brass fly. The disc of the count wheel has been replaced (there are two unused holes for rivets in the wheel). The arbor for the hammer is pivoted between two pillars; the assembly, which is much repaired, is loaded with a spring screwed to the bottom plate, and the hammer strikes against a spring riveted to the top plate. Two detends: the warning detend is pivoted between the pillars, and has arms for unlocking and warning (the last one also lifting the locking detend); the locking detend is formed as a pipe around the end of the warning detend (concentric detends), and carries the lifting arm and the arm for indexing and locking. Warned striking with hammer-lifting off the greatwheel (pinwheel), locking on the hoop of the 2nd wheel and warning on a pin on the 3rd wheel. Conversions: The extensive restoration this clock has undergone makes it difficult to acertain what the old conversions are. Presumably the clock had at one time a pendulum, since the present escapement is certainly modern (there is a filled hole in the top plate opposite the present hole for the cock). The replaced arbors in the striking train may also date from before the restoration: these pinions show wear, and the hole for a second warning pin (3rd wheel) also shows that the clock at one time was made to work with the wrong pinion. When it came into the hands of the restorer it must have been in a sad state, with the dial, back and doors as well as the spider missing. Clearly it was thought that this was a very early lantern clock and so it was restored accordingly (note the empty hole in the top left corner of the dial, for a non-existent alarm!). Performance: Going train: great wheel - .9 revs. per hour (21.6 revs.