Bracket clock
A spring-driven pendulum clock in a wooden case, made in England from the late 1600s to sit on a table or on a small shelf fixed to the wall.
What a bracket clock is
A bracket clock is a spring-driven pendulum clock in a wooden case, small enough to carry from room to room by its handle. Collectors use the term mainly for English clocks made from the late seventeenth century into the nineteenth.
The name comes from where the clocks often stood. The Science Museum explains that they were named for the wall brackets they were originally placed on. The Metropolitan Museum of Art points to a 1710 account for a shelf for my repeater as evidence of the habit, though the same clocks also sat on tables and desks, which is why many curators call them table clocks.
How it works
Unlike a longcase clock, which is powered by heavy weights falling inside a tall case, a bracket clock runs from a coiled mainspring. That freed it from the floor and made it portable. Many bracket clocks pair the spring with a fusee, a cone-shaped pulley that evens out the spring's pull as it unwinds; a clock of about 1830 by Crick of London at Royal Museums Greenwich has double fusees.
The pendulum is short. A walnut bracket clock by Daniel Delander at the Met, made around 1720, has a pendulum of about nine and a half inches with a spring suspension. Early examples typically used a verge escapement; the Met describes the horizontal verge in Delander's clock as typical of table clocks of that period. Later clocks, like the Crick example, switched to the anchor escapement.
Many bracket clocks strike the hours on a bell or gong, and some can repeat. A repeater sounds the last hour, and sometimes the quarters, when you pull a cord or press a lever, which made it possible to tell the time in a dark bedroom. The Met credits Edward Barlow with a pull repeater of 1676.
A strike or silent control let owners turn the hourly bell off. The Met points out that Delander's clock has no repeat, but its strike-silent feature would have suited a bedroom.
See also: where the spring, fusee and pendulum sit in a movement on OnlineClock.app.
History
According to the Met, English clockmakers kept making spring-driven table clocks in wooden cases in the late seventeenth century even as the longcase clock took shape. The form descended from the architectural clocks of the 1660s, whose cases borrowed the look of classical buildings.
Case tops changed over the following decades. The Met notes that domes were added to case tops in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, that later domes took bell-like shapes, and that some were built as pierced metal basket tops. Around 1715 square or rectangular dial plates began to give way to arched tops, giving room above the hands for extra controls and displays, though Delander kept a rectangular dial.
Bracket clocks stayed in production well into the nineteenth century. By around 1830, cases followed new fashions such as the Egyptian revival style seen on the Crick clock in Greenwich, with a round painted dial instead of the earlier engraved brass.
Famous makers and examples
The London maker Thomas Tompion (1639 to 1713) made bracket clocks in restrained ebony-veneered cases. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds his No. 35 of about 1690, signed THO.TOMPION FECIT on the backplate. Pulling cords at the back makes it strike the hour and quarter on two bells of different pitch, and the V&A points to its unusually thick ebony veneer as a sign of Tompion's workmanship. The Met owns a quarter-repeating Tompion table clock of about 1696, about 16 inches tall, whose plain black case sets off a gold and silver dial.
George Graham, one of London's most celebrated makers of clocks, watches and scientific instruments, made the quarter-repeating verge bracket clock No. 764 now in the Science Museum collection. It has an ebonized case and still comes with its separate wooden wall bracket, which shows how these clocks were displayed.
The Graham clock is compact, about 395 mm tall and weighing 6.3 kg. Its dial carries a mock pendulum, a date aperture, a strike or silent indicator and a pendulum rise-and-fall indicator, and it survives with its winding key and door key.
Daniel Delander's clock at the Met, made probably around 1720, is about 22 inches tall, larger than most earlier table clocks. It has a burl walnut case, a bell-shaped top with a brass handle, a heavily engraved backplate and an eight-day movement that strikes the hours on one bell.
Royal Museums Greenwich holds the later Crick clock of about 1830, which has a mahogany case, fretted side panels, a glazed rear door and its own wall-mounting bracket.
How to recognize one
Start with the shape: an upright wooden case, usually walnut, ebonized wood or mahogany, with a carrying handle on top and a glazed door at the front. Many have a glazed rear door too, so the decoratively engraved backplate of the movement can be admired.
The dial often carries small extras. The Graham and Delander clocks both have a mock pendulum, a small window showing a brass figure linked to the real pendulum. The Met notes that it shows at a glance whether the clock is running and lets you start the pendulum without turning the clock around. Both also have a date aperture and a strike or silent control, and Graham's has a rise-and-fall adjuster for regulating the timekeeping.
Inside, a period bracket clock has a spring-driven movement with a short pendulum and no weights. If a clock of this shape runs on a battery or has a modern movement, it is a later clock in the bracket style rather than an original.
A signature on the backplate is worth looking for. Tompion's No. 35 is signed and numbered there, and the Crick clock at Greenwich is marked Crick London on its back plate.
Questions people ask
Why is it called a bracket clock?
Because many stood on small brackets or shelves fixed to the wall. The Science Museum's George Graham clock still has its original wooden bracket.
What is the difference between a bracket clock and a mantel clock?
Bracket clock is the collectors' name for the English spring-driven pendulum table clocks made from the late 1600s. They often stood on wall brackets, tables or desks rather than specifically on a mantelpiece.
What is a false pendulum on a bracket clock?
A small window in the dial showing a brass figure linked to the real pendulum, so you can see at a glance that the clock is running.
Keep exploring
Sources
- Table or bracket clock with calendar, Daniel Delander, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Quarter-repeating verge bracket clock No. 764 by Geo. Graham, Science Museum Group
- Bracket clock by Thomas Tompion, Victoria and Albert Museum
- Spring-driven bracket clock by Crick, Royal Museums Greenwich
- Table or bracket clock by Thomas Tompion, The Metropolitan Museum of Art