Lot Essay
Charles Haley was a Freeman of the Clockmakers' Company 1781-1825. A fine maker who specialised in precision clocks, watches and chronometers.
The present clock is somewhat of an enigma being the unusual combination of an exacting scaled-down version of a high quality Regency longcase regulator and, at the same time, an early version of an English wall regulator.
Due to its diminutive proportions the only method of setting up the pendulum is to insert it through a purpose-made hinged trap door in the base which has been carefully constructed so as to be totally unobtrusive to the eye. This would therefore negate any thought that it might possibly have been used as a portable regulator in a similar vein to that of a journeyman clock. The likelihood is that it was actually designed to be a wall-hanging clock and therefore a 'prototype' of the Victorian English wall regulators. Wall regulators became more popular than their longcase counterparts primarily for stability thereby avoiding negative floor vibrations.
The provision of the bracket is purely cosmetic but presumably Haley, on seeing the completed case, felt that, rather like a bracket clock, its aesthetics would be improved with a conforming bracket.
The present clock is somewhat of an enigma being the unusual combination of an exacting scaled-down version of a high quality Regency longcase regulator and, at the same time, an early version of an English wall regulator.
Due to its diminutive proportions the only method of setting up the pendulum is to insert it through a purpose-made hinged trap door in the base which has been carefully constructed so as to be totally unobtrusive to the eye. This would therefore negate any thought that it might possibly have been used as a portable regulator in a similar vein to that of a journeyman clock. The likelihood is that it was actually designed to be a wall-hanging clock and therefore a 'prototype' of the Victorian English wall regulators. Wall regulators became more popular than their longcase counterparts primarily for stability thereby avoiding negative floor vibrations.
The provision of the bracket is purely cosmetic but presumably Haley, on seeing the completed case, felt that, rather like a bracket clock, its aesthetics would be improved with a conforming bracket.