File:A bracket clock (shelf clock, mantel clock). Wellcome L0072183.jpg

Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org A bracket clock (shelf clock, mantel clock). Construction and assembly by John Leroux, 177-

Physical description 1 clock : wood with ebony veneer and gold leaf, brass and other metals ; clock and handle 47 x 26 x 18 cm. Lettering Leroux Charing Cross Credits Made by John Leroux of 8 Charing Cross Road probably sometime in the 1770s. Leroux was made an honorary freeman of the Clockmaker's Company of London in 1781. He was better known as a watchmaker than as a clockmaker and was an innovator of lever watches. This clock is a company piece, not made by Leroux personally but rather assembled by his company from components that were produced by a range of smaller firms which specialised in specific parts of clock mechanisms. This explains why Leroux's signature is engraved on an attached plaque rather than on the clockface itself Note When it was made in the eighteenth century the clock would have retailed at about fifty or sixty guineas. The handle on the top is purely for decorative purposes - if it had actually been used then it is highly unlikely that the clock would have survived, for the joints which attached the handle to the main body of a clock were notoriously unreliable. It would appear that the mock pendulum which should be positioned in the "hole" on the clockface is missing (information from David Thompson, Mediaeval and Later Antiquities Dept., British Museum, 9 August 1996) Cite as Wellcome Library no. 539062i Author, etc. Leroux, John, 1750-1805. Topic-LCSH Time. Genre/Technique Shelf clocks. Clocks and watches. 177u A bracket clock (shelf clock, mantel clock). Construction and assembly by John Leroux, 177-. John Leroux Published: [177-]