A bracket clock is a style of antique portable table

clock A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...

made in the 17th and 18th centuries. The term originated with small weight-driven pendulum clocks (sometimes called 'true bracket clocks') that had to be mounted on a

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

on the wall to allow room for their hanging weights. When spring-driven clocks were developed, which didn't require hanging weights to power them, they continued to be made in the bracket style. Often they are composed of two matching pieces created as an ensemble: the

and its small decorative shelf. They are almost always made of wood, often

ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also includes the persimmon tree. A few ''Diospyros'' species, such as macassar and mun ebony, are dense enough to sink in water. Ebony is fin ...

, and often ornamented with

ormolu Ormolu (; ) is the gilding technique of applying finely ground, high-carat gold– mercury amalgam to an object of bronze, and objects finished in this way. The mercury is driven off in a kiln, leaving behind a gold coating. The French refer to ...

mounts, brass

inlay Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with the ...

, wood or tortoise shell veneer, or decorative

varnish Varnish is a clear Transparency (optics), transparent hard protective coating or film. It is not to be confused with wood stain. It usually has a yellowish shade due to the manufacturing process and materials used, but it may also be pigmente ...

. Since in their day clocks were expensive, and a household would not have one in every room, bracket clocks usually had handles to carry them from room to room. These clocks were almost always

repeater In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Some ...

s, that is

striking clock A striking clock is a clock that sounds the hours audibly on a bell, gong, or other audible device. In 12-hour striking, used most commonly in striking clocks today, the clock strikes once at 1:00 am, twice at 2:00 am, continuing in this way up t ...

s which could be made to repeat the striking of the hours at the pull of a lever or cord. This feature was used before artificial illumination to tell what time it was at night. However, because they were often used in bedrooms where the hourly striking of the bell could disturb sleepers, they either had a knob to silence the hourly striking, or did not strike on the hour at all but only at the pull of the cord. These were called 'silent pull repeaters'.

Footnotes

* {{Authority control Clock designs

See also

Footnotes