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Victorian Brass Skeleton Clock

$24,500List Price

About the Item

This astounding Victorian skeleton clock is a stellar example of the best in English clock making. Attributed to John Smith & Sons of Clerkenwell, London, this brass two-train timepiece boasts the most intricately crafted design of any skeleton clock we have seen. Not only lovely to look at, this clock is also a mechanical triumph, with an eight-day movement comprised of twin chain fusées and a deadbeat anchor escapement. Time is told by blued steel hands on a pierced, engraved and silvered chapter ring, and the half-hour is struck on the surmounted bell with a hatchet-shaped ringer. Set upon a velvet-covered and ebonized plinth beneath a protective glass dome, this magnificent clock is a work of true distinction.

Skeleton clocks area among the most exceptional and intriguing timepieces ever made, and were designed to display as much of the working mechanism as possible. Often the result of the highest quality workmanship, skeleton clocks are actually some of the earliest clocks, some dating from the mid 16th Century as drum clocks. Popularized circa 1750 by the French, who produced wonderful spring driven antique mantle clocks, these time keepers became the favorite of the English circa 1820, when all the main centers of clock production, London, Liverpool and Birmingham began to make the most exceptional examples.

Features original winding key

Provenance:
Private collection

John Smith & Sons of Clerkenwell, London were at the forefront of skeleton clock making in the Victorian period. The business was founded circa 1844 in St. John's Square, Clerkenwell. Their workshophad its own brass foundry, clock case workshop and assembly areas for the various types of clocks produced as can be seen in an article printed in the Illustrated London News of 1851 entitled "Visit to a Clerkenwell Clock Factory." However, skeleton clocks were a significant part of their repertoire, and today, those clocks crafted by Smith of Clerkenwell are among the most highly regarded in the world, both for their artistic beauty and for their mechanical advancement.

Dimensions:
Height: 22.5 in (57.15 cm)Width: 14.5 in (36.83 cm)
Place of Origin:
England
Period:
19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
Circa 1865
Condition:
Seller Location:
New Orleans, LA
Reference Number:
Seller: 29-63401stDibs: U1106278911182

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