Instruments - Clocks - Vienna Regulators

These popular clocks of the last quarter of the nineteenth century were neither regulators nor always from Vienna. True regulators are clocks designed to achieve the highest possible precision. Vienna "regulators" give the appearance of being precise because they have a second hand. However, because of their short pendulum, the second hand rotates in 45 seconds and is purely for decoration. "Vienna" regulators, which were made in Germany and America as well as Austria, had a rectangular case of polished wood with glass at the front and sides. The top and bottom of the case was finished with ornate turned and carved timber and often a figure, such as an eagle at the top. German "Vienna Regulator"

Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
 

Instruments - Mass-produced French Clocks

 During much of the nineteenth century the French mass-produced small, round clock mechanisms which they fitted into an enormous variety of cases. These were the best quality mass-produced clocks of the time.

French clock in a porcelain case   French clock in a bronze case   French clock in a marble case

Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
 

Instruments - American Clocks

A few longcase clocks were made in America in the 18th and early 19th century. These  were similar to provincial English longcase clocks, or had wooden movements similar to Black Forest clocks.

Early in the 19th century, the "wag on the wall" became popular. This was a weight-driven wooden clock with a pendulum swinging in front of the dial.

The first American shelf clocks were made by Simon and Aaron Willard. These were about four foot high with a wide base section like a chest-on-chest. In 1802, Simon Willard also invented the banjo clock.  This had a circular dial above a tapered trunk and a box-shaped base. Other makers produced variations of this design, such as the lyre clock, which had curved sides, and the grandole clock, which had a circular base.

 

 American "steeple" cottage clock

Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
 

Instruments - European Wall Clocks

From the beginning of the 18th century, French clock making enjoyed a revival. French clocks were always designed firstly as decorative furniture and only secondarily as timepieces.. The French version of the longcase clock looks like a mantle clock standing on a pedestal. French "cartel" clocks were wall clocks in an elaborate frame of highly gilt carved wood or cast bronze. French cartel clock

Dutch Stoelklock In the 17th century, the Dutch had failed to capitalise on the technological lead given to them by Christiaan Huygens, although they had manufactured longcase clocks following the English style. But in the 18th century, the Dutch evolved their own style. Dutch longcase clocks became bulbous in shape and elaborately decorated and surmounted by all kinds of exotic figures - atlas holding the world flanked by trumpeting angels is a typical example. More typically Dutch were a range of weight-driven wall clocks of different designs depending on where they were made. Zaandam clocks (from north of Amsterdam) had cases made of polished wood with a decorative brass or lead gable supported by columns and often surmounted by a figure of Atlas. Stoelkloks, from Friesland, had brightly painted wall brackets with a roof at the top; the weights were suspended on chains rather than the ropes used in Zaandam clocks. Staartkloks, also from Friesland, have the clock mechanism contained in a hood like a longcase clock and the pendulum in a flat case below it with the weights hanging on chains in front of the pendulum case. Dutch Staartklock

Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
 

Instruments - Longcase Clocks

English bracket clock The theory of the application of pendulums to clocks was worked out in 1658 by the Dutchman Christiaan Huygens but was first commercially exploited by the English clockmaker John Fromanteel in the same year.

Early English pendulum c locks were either spring-driven "bracket" clocks or weight-driven "hooded wall" clocks, which look like the top of a grandfather clock stuck to the wall. Bracket clocks stood on pieces of furniture rather than on mantlepieces over the fireplace (as might be imagined) which were not introduced until about 1760.

 

From about 1665, the hooded wall clock began to be superseded by the longcase "grandfather" clock .Despite giving the appearance of being free-standing these were actually screwed to the wall because they were top heavy and quite unstable. After the pendulum was introduced, eight-day duration mechanisms became standard, compared to the thirty-hour duration mechanisms of earlier clocks.

The first period of English longcase clocks is referred to as the "architectural" period because the cases of both bracket and longcase clocks were given a classical form with corner columns topped by pediment. This period lasted from 1665 to 1675. The period from 1675 to 1700 is referred to as the "convex" period because the throat mouldings, between the hood containing the clock face and the trunk of the clock, were convex (as they had been in the earlier period). From 1700, the throat moulding was concave. 

 

 English longcase clock

Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
 

Instruments - Clocks - Early Clocks

Gothic Clocks

The first mechanical clocks were made in about 1300. They were very large clocks often in church bell towers, These clocks were powered by falling weights and regulated by a "foliot", which is a beam, pivoted at the centre and oscillating in the horizontal plane. These clocks had no minute hand and sometimes no face at all, being designed to strike a bell to indicate each hour. On some clocks the hour hand rotated in the way we are used to; on others the face rotated behind a stationery hour hand. They were manufactured from iron by blacksmiths.

Domestic versions of these iron clocks, called "Gothic clocks" , were produced in southern Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy. Their design was "skeletonised", that is, there was no case. The mechanism was held up by four iron corner posts; there was a large bell at the top, often surmounted by a spire. These smaller clocks were manufactured by locksmiths or gunsmiths, rather than blacksmiths.

 iron Gothic clock

Read the rest of this entry »