42 
House & Garden 
play impulse.” Wherever art touches life, 
fun has its sanction—that is, within limits 
—and the clock is not too solemn to cut an 
occasional caper. 
Designers and Monstrosities 
Does it follow, then, that simply because 
the various types of clocks are reasonable 
and charming and beautiful, each in its 
way, one runs no risk of acquiring a mon¬ 
strosity? Ah, no! You can take the best 
clock ever designed, and by a stroke of 
genius not denied to the amateur transform 
it instantly into a jumping horror. This is 
accomplished merely by putting the right clock 
in the wrong place. Place determines every¬ 
thing. Said the immortal cockney in Punch, 
“So I explains to ’im, a celluloid collar in lodg¬ 
ings, well and good; but in a boarding estab¬ 
lishment, a thousand times No!!” 
When a designer gets at a clock, he thinks 
first, not of the clock, but of the place where it 
is to go. When an experienced 
salesman opens up on a pur¬ 
chaser, he asks first, not “What 
style of clock have you in mind ?” 
but “Where do you mean to put 
it ?” When people of disciplined 
taste go out after clocks, they 
consider first, not the clock, but 
its eventual surroundings. This 
is fundamental. Disregard it 
and court absurdities unlimited. 
Imagine, for instance, a mar¬ 
ble or porphyry clock, with gilt 
statuettes, on a skimpy wooden 
mantel amid “very Roycrofty” 
furnishings! No one ever de¬ 
signed it for such a roost. It was 
designed for a richly carved mar¬ 
ble or stone chimney-piece in the 
most sumptuous of drawing 
rooms. Fancy a huge banjo 
clock on a wall in a miniature 
flat! At the end of a long hall, 
excellent—provided that it har- 
For the library or living room comes a mahog¬ 
any Chippendale clock with aluminum face and 
hands and distinct figures. Courtesy of Altman 
monizes—but at close range, grotesque. Think 
of a painted china clock, all cupids and violets, 
surmounting a sectional bookcase of raucous 
oak! It belongs in Milady’s boudoir, where 
powder puffs replace Thackeray sets and the 
keynote of all is daintiness. 
Happily, there are clocks that shout in no 
uncertain tones for the 
right place. The Greek 
,#fSW*@SPS scroll clock, for example. 
“Enlarged, it would suit 
the top of the Union Sta¬ 
tion.” With its size and 
form and obvious weight 
and solidity, it caps the 
middle of some long, 
heavy, and rather lofty 
support, and only a rav¬ 
ing maniac would put it 
anywhere else. 
But they make Greek 
scrolls with ship’s-bell 
striking attachments, oft¬ 
entimes, and this compli¬ 
cates matters. In what 
part of your house do you 
feel like running away to 
sea? Having had experi¬ 
ence, you answer “Certain¬ 
ly not the dining-room!” 
A Chinese clock of iron red 
lacquer and silver face and 
metal decorations. 14" high, 
10" wide. Altman 
Nor do nautical 
tions befit the library, quite, or the drawing 
room. In the living, room, a note of play¬ 
fulness goes admirably, unless it evokes 
memories too vividly painful, in which case 
I suggest the billiard room. If a man must 
turn his house into a ship, what more con¬ 
solatory proof of good sailing than billiards 
within sound of the ship’s bell ? 
Clocks Do Last 
The style of clock settled, with reference 
primarily to the place where it is to go, it 
remains to select from among scores of speci¬ 
mens the most attractive. Beware! Clocks 
last. Hardly any other objects of use last so 
long, and it is bad policy to be joyful for ten 
minutes and exasperated all the rest of one’s 
days. The merits of a satisfactory design grow 
more pleasing as time goes on, but the vices of 
an unsatisfactory design grow more and more 
atrocious. It counts for little, seemingly, if the 
(Continued on page 80) 
The Colonial grandfather clock demands the right setting—preferably in a Colonial living 
room or on a hall landing where it may be the dominant note. Its simplicity lends dignity to a 
room as here, where the clock in the corner is from Stair & Andrew. Photograph by courtesy of 
Todhunter 
The more elaborate grandfather should 
stand in the hall. This has a mahogany 
case. Courtesy of Grand Rapids Fur¬ 
niture Co. 
