To many antique clock collectors, the price of an antique clock will always be justified by its magnificence. This is why although prices can soar to as high as thousands of dollars, there will always be buyers.
Various antique collectors do not usually confine themselves to collecting from a single clock-making company or type of clock. Their collections are usually made up of clocks from different times, made by varying now defunct clock companies, and clocks of different types, sizes and shapes. One of the most popular antique time pieces are called bracket clocks.
Bracket clocks can be traced to the 17th and 18th century, making them truly valuable to the clock collectors. It is an antique, portable clock, which is weight-driven and had to be mounted on a bracket on the wall to support their hanging weight, hence the name bracket clocks. The earlier versions were smaller and were rightly termed as “true bracket clocks” by more meticulous clock aficionados.
A bracket clock would often be a matching ensemble of two individual pieces: the clock, itself, and a decorative shelf to match. They were generally made of wood, mostly ebony, and often went alongside with some ormolu mounts, wood or tortoise shell, brass inlay and decorative varnish. These clocks were widely known to be repeaters- that is, you can pull down a lever or cord to make it tell you the time through the striking of the hours. Because of this, they were mainly regarded as nighttime clocks because the specific time could be told anytime during the night with the pull of a cord. This was before any type of illumination could be built in to clocks to read the time in the dark. The hourly striking, however, was believed to disturb sleepers during the night, so “silent pull repeaters” were also made to silence its sound by the pull of a cord. These classic time pieces were commonplace at that time but were quite expensive. The clocks were also equipped with a handle for convenient transfer from room to room.
Nowadays, bracket clocks have been made with modernized versions. But the antique pieces remain quite expensive.
