October, 1913 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



363 



Old 



Clocks 



By Elizabeth Lounsbery 



Photographs by T. C. Turner, 



Jennie Young Chandler and Others 



Old Dutch wall clock. Silver Repousee. 

 Pendulum folded back 



Old skeleton mantel clock from Chester, 

 England, eighteenth century 















1 . "■* 















F the many suggestions of bygone days, per- duced for domestic use, and was known as the "bird cage," 

 haps the clock has a strong an appeal "lantern," or "bedpost" clock. These clocks, which de- 

 as even the intimacy of old china or the rived their name from their shape, were made of brass, 

 feeling of comfort which is prompted by In some merely the hours were struck — in others a bell sur- 

 the introduction of old furniture in the mounted the case as an alarm. From the chamber clock, 

 home. sometimes encased by a wooden hood, to protect it from 

 Many fine examples of early clock making have been dust, gradually developed the eight-day long-case or grand- 

 preserved, in consequence, by not only the intelligent col- father clock, as it was familiarly known later. This did 

 lector and the descendants of some of the best American not affect the use of the "lantern" clocks, however, which 

 clock makers, but mere chance as well has saved for us, still continued in popularity, and in the time of Queen Anne 

 because of their very usefulness and reliability as time- were made with an increased size of dial, which protruded 

 pieces, numbers of old clocks which otherwise would have two or three inches on either side of the frame and were 

 found their way to the rubbish pile, from which, most for- termed "sheep's-head" clocks. 



tunately, they have been rescued by discriminating collectors. Three pioneer "horlogers" (as clockmakers were then 



So many contradictory records exist in regard to the called) from Holland, went to England in 1368, and under 



exact date of the invention of the 

 clock, that it is guesswork to desig- 

 nate a definite date for their intro- 

 duction. It is generally conceded 

 though that clocks, which perhaps 

 were little more than sun-dials were 

 placed in cathedrals and monasteries 

 as early as the ninth and tenth cen- 

 turies, and during the twelfth and 

 thirteenth centuries, which marked" 

 the evolution of the sun-dial and 

 water-clock to the clock with escape- 

 ment, they became more generally 

 used for that purpose. As the work 

 clock appears in Latin as "glocio," 

 signifying a bell, in French as 

 "cloche" and in German as "glocke," 

 it is probable that many of the early 

 efforts consisted merely in striking 

 a bell at regular intervals determined 

 by a sun-dial or sand-glass. 



From 1335 to 1350 when the 

 famous Strasburg Cathedral clocks 

 were begun, up to 1500, the use of 

 clocks was necessarily confined to 

 cathedrals and large buildings be- 

 cause of their heavy weights, but 

 with the invention of the coiled 

 spring and gradual improvement of 

 the works, the general use of clocks 

 extended throughout Europe — at 

 first as the expensive and highly 

 decorated timepieces of royalty and 

 the very rich. About 1620, how- 



the protection of Edward III, may 

 be said to have introduced the in- 

 dustry into that country, where it 

 rapidly grew to such proportions 

 that to prevent further invasions, 

 the Clockmakers' Company was 

 formed, under a charter from 

 Charles I, granted in 1631. This 

 empowered the society to rule and 

 protect the rights of the craftsmen, 

 and with its by-laws to govern all 

 persons using the trade in London or 

 within about ten miles of it. The 

 company also had the "right of 

 search" and the power to inspect and 

 possibly seize clocks and watches of 

 suspicious authenticity and qualitv, 

 to prevent their sale and exportation. 

 This continued until 1698, when an 

 act was passed demanding that the 

 maker's name, with his place of resi- 

 dence, should appear on every clock 

 or watch exported, under penalty of 

 a fine and forfeiture. 



It was about this time — a few 

 years earlier, that clockmakers from 

 England and Holland set forth for 

 America — equipped with the train- 

 ing of their vocations and with tools, 

 to establish themselves here, where 

 they eventually turned out work 

 equal to that of their home coun- 

 tries. Of these early clockmakers, 

 many settled in Massachusetts and 

 ever, the chamber chock was intro- Old clock of the Terry type made by Chauncey Jerome Connecticut and New York, while 



