Clock type · Domestic

Bracket Clocks

Verified

English-tradition spring-driven domestic clocks, originally designed to sit on a wall bracket, typically case in ebonised or veneered wood with a carrying handle and glazed door.

Movement & mechanism

Fusee-and-chain drive in earlier and higher-grade examples, going barrel in later cheaper work
Verge escapement in the earliest examples, anchor escapement from the later seventeenth century onward
Backplate frequently engraved and pierced, especially in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
Striking on a bell (earlier) or gong (later), commonly via a locking-plate or rack system

Identification

Carrying handle on top of the case, distinguishing it in form from a mantel clock proper
Backplate engraving style is a useful, though not conclusive, dating tool
Fusee and chain visible on removing the movement is typical of higher-grade English work

Terminology

Backplate — the rear movement plate, often decoratively engraved on English bracket clocks
False plate — a mounting plate allowing dial interchange, appearing from the mid-eighteenth century

Known variations

Verge bracket clock (pre-1670s)
Anchor-escapement bracket clock
Musical/quarter-striking bracket clock
Basket-top and pagoda-top case styles

Collecting notes

Signed, dated English bracket clocks by documented makers form a well-studied and actively collected category; a mismatched dial, movement and case (a 'marriage') significantly affects both authenticity and value.

Bracket clock movement — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain. Wikimedia Commons file page

Clocks; a bracket clock formerly in the possession of the Ea Wellcome V0023857 — Bracket clock movement — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain. Wikimedia Commons file page

Sources & references

Britten, F. J., Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.