Clocks · Mantel clock
Walnut Cased Quarter-Chiming Mantel Clock
- Maker / attribution
- F W Elliott Ltd (Made by); Rotherham & Sons (platform escapement) (Made by)
- Date
- 1926–1927
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- British Isles
- Place
- Coventry (West Midlands)
- Object type
- Mantel clock
- Materials / technique
- walnut, plywood
- Holding institution
- British Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 2009,8021.15
- Credit line
- British Museum, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Walnut Cased Quarter-Chiming Mantel Clock (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 2009,8021.15), this is a mantel clock by F W Elliott Ltd, made in Coventry (West Midlands), British Isles, dated 1926–1927. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: walnut, plywood. The record is illustrated with 6 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
Description — British Museum
Walnut Cased Quarter-Chiming Mantel Clock. Walnut veneered plywwod case with angled and moulded top surmounted by a chromium-plated handle.Around the base are three chromium-plated bars secured by screws and ther are four rectangular chromium-plated feet. Hinged, glazed chromium-plated front bezel. Rear door with pierced metal fret lined with silk.On the inside of tyhe acse is a large iron bracket into which the movement and dial slide and are then secured by locking screws. Silvered metal dial with an outer minute circle surrounding hours I-XII. A chime/silent lever at III. Winding holes at III, VI and IX. Blued-steel, spade-pattern hour and minute hands. Eight-day, spring-driven, three-train movement with rectagular brass plates angled at the top corners and with crackle finish on the back plate. Four plain brass cylindrical pillars pinned at the front and retained by screws at the back. The going train mounted in the centre, with going barrel and five-wheel gear train. Plarform lever escapement with jewelled bearings for the escape wheel, lever and balance. Brass escape wheel, jewelled pallets and uncut balance with 'compensation;' screw. Spiral balance spring with terminal curve, the index missing from the balance cock. Over the platform is a later brass cover secured by two screws. Hour-striking train on the right, with going barrel, striking on three gongs simultaneously. Quarter chiming train on the right with a rear mounted pin-barrel playing Westminster chimes on four of the five rod gongs mounted on a cast-iron standard screwed to the base of the case.
Curator's comments — British Museum
Very well made movement, cast alloy bracket which is a feature of the best Gillet & Johnston clocks and carried on for a while by Elliott after they were taken over. Snailing on back plate. See 'Clockmaking in England and Wales in the Twentieth Century : the industrialized manufacture of domestic mechanical clocks' by John Glanville and William M.… Wolmuth, Crowood Press , 2015.
Inscriptions & marks
inscription; dial; GEO. MUIR LTD; GLASGOW; maker's mark; escapement platform; R & S; MADE IN ENGLAND; maker's mark; movement back plate; 806; maker's mark; case bottom; 1304
Provenance
Purchased from:, John Glanville, Purchased from:, Bill Wolmuth
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Mantel and French pendule clocks
The mantel clock — the French pendule de cheminée — is as much decorative art as timekeeper. From the late seventeenth century Parisian clockmakers worked with cabinet-makers, bronze founders and gilders (ciseleurs-doreurs) to create cases in Boulle marquetry, gilt bronze and marble, while the movements were often supplied by specialist makers. Clocks of the Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI periods, and Empire clocks with allegorical figures, set fashions copied across Europe.
The nineteenth century industrialised the type. The 'Paris movement', a standardised round movement with silk-thread or Brocot suspension and count-wheel striking, was made in huge numbers by firms such as Japy and Vincenti, and fitted into cases of every style and material.
What to look for
- Round 'Paris' movements with makers' stamps (e.g. Japy Frères, Vincenti, S. Marti) and medal marks from exhibitions.
- Suspension type: silk thread (earlier) or Brocot adjustable suspension (after c. 1840).
- Visible Brocot escapement on the dial in later clocks.
- Fire-gilt (mercury) gilding on bronzes versus later electro-gilding.
- Signed dials naming a retailer rather than the movement maker.
Dating clues
- Silk-suspension Paris movements: c. 1800–1850.
- Brocot suspension and visible escapements: after c. 1840.
- Exhibition medal stamps on movements give dates after the medal year.
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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