From the seventeenth century onwards, the English bracket clock was the type of timepiece most admired and sought after by wealthy and cultured Spanish clients. The bracket clock was a transportable short-case timepiece placed on a shelf or bracket on the wall. Owing to its weight, this position was changed shortly after its invention to the top of a console table. Because it was free-standing, a glass door was installed in the back to allow a better view of the exquisite decoration of the back plate, decorated with vegetable motifs, cartouches, birds and so on, all engraved on the metal with a burin along with the maker’s name.

The original square shape of the earliest cases soon evolved. First a basket top was added, and then, from 1720, cases started to be decorated with a bell top.

The dial was originally square, but technical advances made it necessary to incorporate an arch at the top to make room for extra dials. These were generally commissioned from silversmiths, who would engrave the numerals with a burin and then enamel them in black. A curved aperture in the dial allowed a small pendulum to be seen on clocks that had no seconds hand.

The mechanism is lodged between two thick plates. The movement is a combination of a barrel and a fusee allowing the tension of the spring to be regulated. The barrel houses the mainspring while the fusee is a cone with a spiral groove for winding the chain. When the mainspring loses its tension as the clock runs down, the fusee compensates for this by tensing the chain around the barrel. The escapement transforms the revolving movement of early clocks into the oscillating movement of the pendulum. Early clock mechanisms sometimes incorporated a repeater movement that made it possible for a set of auxiliary bells to chime the hours and quarters by pulling a cord on one side of the case.

The importance of this timepiece lies in the maker of its movement and in the documentary data preserved in the historical archive of Banco de España. The clock is documented in 1783. On 7 June, Julián Martínez confirms that he has received 1,500 reales from Pedro Bernardo Casamayor for the sale of a pendulum clock. The maker of the clock was Windmills, and it was destined for the decoration of the building occupied by Banco Nacional de San Carlos in Calle de la Luna.

The simple rectangular case is of mahogany. It ends in a bell top decorated with an ormolu pineapple finial and acorns on the four corners. Also of ormolu are the four feet supporting the stepped plinth of imitation ebony.

The door with its lock protects the square ormolu dial surmounted by an arch while allowing it to be seen through the glass. The chapter ring is of gilt silver and shows the hours in Roman numerals and the minutes five by five in Arabic numerals, all polychromed in black. The interior of the dial is of metal decorated with matting. Flanking the number VI is the maker’s signature: Windmills / London. Above this is a rectangular window for the calendar. The movement of the pendulum can be seen through a longitudinal aperture above the hand collet. On the upper arch is an auxiliary strike/silent dial for the chimes. The rest of the face has an applied decoration of fretted gilt metal plates representing vegetable motifs and female faces, and is completed with the hand collet and three winding holes. The hands are of blued metal.

Glazed windows were inserted in the sides and on the back to allow a view of the machinery and the back plate. This ormolu plate is decorated with beautiful engraved vegetable motifs that surround the maker’s signature, Windmills / London. From 1734, the English Clockmakers’ Company ruled that all back plates must be signed to prevent fraud and forgery by continental clockmakers.

The English three-train movement is protected by rectangular plates and lateral pillars. The going train is a mainspring movement that keeps the clock running for eight days. It is regulated by a fusee and chain system connected to an anchor escapement that moves the pendulum. The striking train uses a rack system to chime on the hours and quarters. There is also a six-bell carillon.

The handles usual on clocks of this type are curiously missing. They were normally placed on the top or the sides so that the timepiece could be carried from one place to another.

Amelia Aranda Huete