Antique Bryson Clock

Price Type: auction
Sold Date: 1/1/2003
Pre-Sale Estimate: (subscribers only)
Sold For: (subscribers only)

Catalog Description:

English wall clock by "Bryson, Edinburgh", so signed on the dial. This is a large, impressive clock made of quarter-sawn oak. Takes 2 men and a mule to move it. It has aged to a beautiful red-golden finish. Some people think it is cherry until they give it a close inspection. All the carvings, including the magnificent deer's head, are oak. The silvered dial alone weights 5 pounds. It is 13 inches in diameter and signed. The hands are blued steel and may well be original, impossible to tell. The bezel is carved oak with beveled glass and has an interesting, original push button latch, as does the lower door. The lower door glass is old but does appear to have new putty. The lower backboard does appear to have the original mirror, and the silver is about 95%. The top of the case has a removable dust cover for access to the movement. That dust cover may very well be the only replacement part on the whole clock.At the bottom of the case is a large, carved oak medallion. It was made to lift up and out of a slot? The carved letters are carved in old English font and all on the same center. Your guess will be as good as mine what they stand for. It appears to me they are, "IWC". My "expert" advisors say it is, "E, I or J, and M or V". Lots of choices. If the medallion is a trademark it is not in our trademark books. It could be the initials of a Lodge, Bank, Club, or whatever.The movement shows definite English heritage. The front of the movement appears identical to a standard two-train English movement. However, the strike side fly has adjustable paddles and is extended outside the rear plate and supported by a cock mounted on the read plate, Elliott Style. The anchor is Austrian style, dead-beat fixed pallet. The movement strikes the hours only, on a large iron coil gong, mounted to the backboard. A short lever mounted on the movement actuates the hammer. An iron casting mounted on the backboard supports the live single jar mercury pendulum. The jar is not glass but a material in the plastic line, but old in appearance as are the top and bottom brass caps. I believe the caps are original, they fit the jar perfectly, therefore the jar may also be original.Both trains are powered by compounded, suit case type weights, with the pulleys mounted in slots, machined into the top of the weights. The idler pulleys are mounted at the top of the case on either side. The pulleys float on their arbors in the cast brass mounts to allow level winding on the grooved wind drums.The case is 83 inches, with the 13 inch deer head on top, 31 inches wide at the top, 23 inches at the bottom. The clock looks equally good with the deer head on, or off.References:Brittens 9th Ed, page 387. Robert Bryson 1854-1886.The Complete Clock Book, by Nutting. Alexander Bryson, 1830-1860.Both made clocks in Edinburgh.

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