Antique Wall, Long Case and Table Clocks
Wall, Long Case and Table Clocks
Early domestic clocks—the development of the “grandfather” or long case clock—characteristics of case design—some famous makers —telling the age by dial and hands—introduction of white dials—effects of the Industrial Revolution—provincial clockmakers and cottage craftsmen.
The domestic clock was an exceptionally rare possession in the 16th century. It would be reasonable to say that before the Tudor monarchy it was unheard of in the English house. In the painting of Sir Thomas More’s family by Holbein, referred to earlier in the book, there is a clock to be seen hanging on the wall next to the dressoir. It is a Gothic clock of probably German origin and was the forerunner of the smaller brass lantern clock which was made only rarely in the British Isles towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth 1.
These early clocks were always weight driven, never went for more than 30 hours and were made to hang upon the wall. They were provided with a wrought-iron ring for suspending from a hook and two spurs at the lower part of the back of the clock to keep it in an upright position. The movements, sometimes referred to as the “works”, were governed by a balance wheel escapement, as the principle of the pendulum was not applied to clock mechanism until the middle of the 17th century.
Another type of clock which was produced in early times was the brass table clock and this also was an importation from the continent. It was constructed in the form of a square or round box, standing on small feet, the dial situated on the top in a horizontal position like a sun-dial. Consequently it was not possible to ascertain the time from a distance. The table clock was spring driven and while a few English examples were made during the 17th and 18th centuries, production ceased around 1770, apart from those later developed as chronometers.
Clocks in wooden cases, which are really the only kind to be included under the heading of furniture, did not appear until the Restoration, either as mantel clocks or in the form usually referred to as “grandfather”. Hitherto, clocks had not been very accurate time-keepers and were often as much as an hour fast or slow in a day. It was the adaptation for clockwork of Galileo’s invention of the pendulum by a Dutch scientist named Huygens in 1657 which allowed a considerable improvement in time recording to be made. This coincided with the introduction of wooden clock cases.
A young Londoner, John Fromanteel, had been apprenticed to a Dutch clockmaker at The Hague about this time. He learned the secret of making pendulum clocks and brought it back to England in 1658. The new controlling mechanism was known as a verge escapement and the pendulum used was quite short, being about 7 inches in length.
It was shortly after 1660 that the first grandfather clocks appeared in this country. The term “grandfather” is really of late Victorian origin and they were always referred to during the 17th and 18th centuries as long case clocks. Some writers on British horology have attempted to trace the development of the long case clock from the brass lantern type. It is true that after 1660 many lantern clocks were covered over with a wooden hood which had a glazed front. This hood was fitted to a bracket upon which the clock stood and the driving weight hung down on a rope below the movement. Presumably the hood was introduced to keep dust away from the mechanism.
The possibility of damage to the clock by clumsy servants, children or domestic animals interfering with the hanging weight would have been a good reason for its enclosure in a long wooden case. In this way the shape of the long case clock could have been developed. However, it is now well known that hooded and long case clocks both appeared at about the same time and, including the lantern clock, all three types continued in production until quite late in the 18th century. Long case clocks, of course, were made until the middle of Victoria’s reign and a few are still produced at the present day.
Mantel clocks appeared on the scene very shortly after the long case type. They were first known as table or bracket clocks, being designed to stand on a side table or wall bracket. It is seldom that a clock is found today with its original wall bracket. When people acquire these early table clocks they often stand them on a mantelpiece where they look far too big and out of place. It was only after the middle of the 18th century that smaller models were made expressly for the mantelshelf. Early table clocks had square brass dials and were housed in ebony veneered cases while those of the early 18th century had the arch dials of the period and walnut and mahogany were used for the cases.
The first long case clocks were of a very attractive size being quite small compared with those produced 150 years later. Because the pendulum was short and did not extend down into the case, the latter could be made comparatively narrow, often as little as 9 inches in width and very seldom over 6 feet in height. The more expensive clocks had ebony veneered cases and the hoods were designed in a pleasingly plain architectural style, usually with some gilded brass ornaments attached to the pediment and hood framework. The base was surrounded by a simple plinth. These very early long case clocks are exceedingly rare and when they do appear on sale the price is usually in the neighbourhood of £1,000.
During the next 30 years some important changes took place in long case design. Around 1670 a longer pendulum was introduced with a beat of one second. This was a purely English invention and was to revolutionise methods of accurate time-keeping. As the new 39-inch pendulum had an extended swing a slightly wider and taller case became necessary. By 1690 long case clocks had an average height of just under 7 feet and the width varied between 10 and 11 inches. The ebony veneered or ebonised pine cases of the earlier period must have appeared rather sombre when the clocks increased in size because the more colourful burr walnut veneer and flower marquetry cases had displaced them by the end of the century. The pediment on the clock hood was replaced with a carved cresting, pegged into the front edge of the flat top. This is rarely present nowadays as, being easily detached, it was liable to be mislaid during a removal of furniture. The hood, which hitherto had been constructed with a glass panel in front and which had to be lifted upwards when access to the hands was required, now had a glazed door fitted instead.
It also became the practice at this time to insert a little circular or oval window, known as a lenticle, in the door of the long case at the height of the pendulum bob. This was intended to show to an observer across the room that the clock was in motion. The gleam of the brass bob as it swung backwards and forwards could be seen clearly from a distance. Originally the lenticle was made of plain glass but in many cases this has been replaced with a piece of thick green glass commonly known as a bull’s eye.
Other features of long case clocks at the end of the Restoration were spiral twist pillars fitted to the edges of the hood door and a wide ovolo moulding placed immedia-tely below the hood. By 1710 this had been altered to a cavetto shape and the use of the ovolo moulding was never revived. Except in a few instances of country manufacture the small bull’s eye windows also became obsolete at about the same time.
Around 1720 long case clocks began to appear with dials surmounted by an arch. This necessitated a taller hood and the case was made higher still by the addition of a moulded or cushion top. The arch of the hood door was matched by a rounded top similar to the trunk door which hitherto had always been rectangular in shape. Cases were also becoming wider and 12 or 13 inches was not an uncommon size. Pillars were still attached to the hood doors but were no longer in the form of spiral twists, being usually plain or fluted columns with brass bases and capitals. During the next 80 years pillars ceased to be placed on the doors but remained free-standing on either side of the hood. A characteristic of Scottish clocks was the retention of the spiral twist pillars in a rather attenuated form until nearly the end of the century.
By 1765 clock cases had reached a height of 7 feet 6 inches or thereabout and had an average width of 14 inches. Mahogany was in general use and the long veneered case doors were often finely figured. While simple wainscot oak versions of the more elaborately veneered London clocks had always been made in the provinces many were now being made in the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire which were cross-banded with mahogany.
London clocks still maintained a pre-eminence in good design during the latter half of the 18th century but many of the more northerly types were becoming very large indeed. Along with the other pieces of furniture whose design was affected by architectural influences, the broken pediment on the hood was introduced and this in turn developed into the swan-neck pediment. In some cases towards the end of the century the swan-necks became so debased in shape as to appear just like a pair of horns or ears protruding from the top of the hood.
During the early years of the 19th century some rather clumsy long case clocks were being made in the industrial north. Sometimes double sets of pillars appeared on either side of the hood and these on occasion lost any semblance of their architectural origin, becoming merely uninteresting turned spindles. The trunk door had gradually dwindled in size to a small, almost square trap, looking for all the world like the door of a small food larder. As a matter of fact, I have seen very attractive looking small cocktail cabinets, made to hang on the wall, which had been produced from the centre part of the trunks of these large clocks. The craftsmanship of early 19th-century cases was of the highest order but the overall design, generally speaking, was in very poor taste. Such clocks were portents of those monstrosities in furniture design which the Victorians, on occasion, were later to perpetrate.
One of the many interesting characteristics of the long case clocks was that in nearly every instance the name of the maker and place of manufacture were engraved upon the dial. Only in very few examples are clocks found to be anonymous. The earliest of the British clockmakers of whom records are known were probably Nicholas Vallin and Bartholomew Newsam who worked in London towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth 1. When James I came from Scotland to become king of England he brought with him a Scottish clockmaker, David Ramsay. The latter was a great clockmaker and became the first Master of the Clockmakers Company which was founded in 1631, during the reign of Charles I. The Stuart kings were all clock lovers and it was largely due to the enthusiasm of Charles II and his great interest in scientific matters that clock-making in England by the end of the 17th century had become pre-eminent in all Europe. All the makers already mentioned, however, were producers of metal clocks and preceded the era of the clocks in wooden cases.
Ahasuerus Fromanteel, a relation of that John who introduced the pendulum into British clockmaking, was one of the first names to appear on the dial of a long case clock. He was followed during the next 40 years by such famous makers as Edward East, Henry Jones, Thomas Tompion, Joseph Knibb, Daniel Quare and Joseph Windmills. The last I include in this list of the immortals for two reasons. In the first place, he is credited with the introduction of the arch dial in clock design during the first quarter of the 18th century and secondly, I am fortunate to possess a clock in a bird and flower marquetry case of around 1690 made by Joseph Windmills. He was made a member of the Clockmakers Company in 1671, the same year in which Tompion was elected, was Master in 1703 and retired or died in 1740.
There are several sources of information giving details of the early clockmakers such as G. H. Baillie’s Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World; F. J. Britten’s Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers (Revised 7th Edition); John Smith’s Old Scottish Clockmakers and Iorwith Peate’s Clock and Watch Makers in Wales. So far there has not been a book written on the Irish makers but many of their names are included in Baillie and Britten.
While the general shape of antique clock cases will give an approximate idea of the period in which they were made it must be remembered that, as with all the furniture styles, what was fashionable in London for a decade continued to be produced in the provinces for another 20 or 30 years in many instances. The details of clock dials and hands, however, give a much closer date approximation.
Early dials were seldom more than 9 inches square but by 1775, 14 inches was not an uncommon size. Until the last quarter of the 18th century all dials had a chapter ring, which bears the hour numerals, and ornamental corner spandrels attached to the dial as separate items. Roman numerals were always used for the hours until after 1800 and above them were engraved Arabic figures. In the 17th century the Arabic numerals were about -51th of the size of the Roman but they were gradually enlarged so that by 1770 they were often irds of the size of the latter.
The spandrels were cast in brass and in early clocks were finely chased and gilded. Between 1670 and 1680 a finely modelled but simple cupid’s head was fashionable. By 1690 further decorative motifs were added to this pattern and around 1700 the cupid head design was replaced by a bearded mask or a maiden’s head surrounded by still more elaborate decoration. A theme of flowers in a vase with seashells was popular about 1740 and during the 1770’s the spandrels evolved into an arrangement of rococo arabesques without any realistic representation. In the north about this time there was a revival of the cupid head spandrel but it was much larger than the 17th-century version and appears rather crude when compared with the much finer castings of a hundred years previously.
All domestic clocks before 1660 had only one hand which told the hours and the quarters. More detailed time recording was not considered necessary in those far off and less complicated days. A minute hand was added to some movements early in the Restoration period and a second hand, called a second minute hand, about 1675. In the provinces, nevertheless, country clocks of 30 hours going duration and with only one hand continued in production even as late as 1780 or thereabouts. There seems to have been a dislike for change among the country people who preferred the older and simpler method of time-keeping.
This fact has proved very misleading to many clock owners who think that because a clock has only one hand it must be of an earlier date than 1700 at least.
White dials for long case clocks did not appear before 1775. The earliest were made of fine enamel but these are rare and very soon they were being produced with a painted front. Apart from being much cheaper to manufacture than the engraved brass dial there was the important fact that it was much easier to tell the time from a white dial. The engraving of brass dials towards the end of the 18th century had tended to be much too elaborate and what with hour, minute, centre-second hands and often a calendar indicator all pivoted at the dial centre plus a mass of engraving and over-elaborate spandrels, it became virtually impossible to ascertain the time unless one was standing very close to the clock. White dials for bracket clocks were introduced at the same time as those for the long case variety. In fact, the characteristics of hands, spandrels, chapter rings, etc, followed the same pattern for both types of clock.
The early years of the Industrial Revolution had a considerable effect on the production of clock dials and movements. Although the distribution of goods was still a very slow and arduous matter in the late 18th century, the pack-horse was capable of transporting clock dials, trains of wheels and most of the parts which went to make up a clock movement, to the most out-of-the-way villages in the country. For this reason there exists a marked similarity between late Georgian clocks although they may have been made over quite a large area of the country. The country clockmaker had, in fact, become a mere assembler of parts and no longer constructed the entire clock by hand in his own workshop as he had done earlier in the century.
A feature of 18th-century clockmaking was the very considerable amount of repetition work which was per-formed in the cottage homes of specialist craftsmen such as the clock-hand maker. In many cases their wives and children assisted in the work. Chains for fusee movements, the filing and gilding of spandrels after casting, the engraving of dials and many other particular processes were performed on a small bench at home and taken weekly to the master-clockmaker, who with his assistants would asaemble the movement.
The wooden long cases and also those for the bracket clocks were not made by the clockmaker but by an outside craftsman who specialised in the work. Thus it is that in some instances clocks made by well-known contemporaries like Tompion, Quare, Knibb and Windmills are found in cases which have identical marquetry designs and other features which indicate that they must have originated in the same workshops. Cases for country clocks were usually made by local joiners and like other examples of country-made furniture exhibit a certain naivety in their appearance.