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44
Quality
time
If you have an old grandfather clock sitting in your house, or an
ornate mantelpiece one, they could well be collector’s items –
whether in working condition or not. THOMAS PLANT says in
this instance time really is money
H
orology is the art and/or science of
measuring time and horologists is the
name given to clock collectors.
One of the best things about collecting clocks
is being able to study them to find out about the
social culture, science and technology behind
them.
Looking at a clock, you can tell a lot about
when it was made.
Clockmakers often wove their culture into
their creations, so looking at the design and
construction can help you pinpoint where and
when the clock was made.
Clocks started to be used in the 1600s with
verge and foliot escapements, later to be
replaced by pendulums, and back then they
were made of brass with iron components and
were wall-hung and struck every hour on the
hour – but they were not great time keepers.
Although this design continued for the next 150
years, there are relatively few of them in the
market and we rarely see them at auction.
We now call these lantern clocks – thought
to come from the word ‘latten’ meaning brass
or possibly because these clocks resembled
lanterns.
Longcase clocks, or grandfather clocks as they
are more commonly known, were produced
in England from the mid-1600s for 200 years,
however production slowed after about 1860
with modern-styled examples being made up
to the 1950s with reproduction examples still
being produced today.
Good quality clocks from well-known makers or
clocks with complex or automaton movements
are highly sought after and command good
prices. The automatons can be moon phase,
“rocking ship” or merely animals/people being
part of the painted dial with moving eyes.
In the 1650s the English cleric, the Reverend
Edward Barlow, invented the Rack and Snail
striking mechanism, which in turn allowed the
repeating clock to develop at the press of a
button, or the pull of a chord. These clocks
chimed the hours (and in more complex
designs the minutes too). The striking
mechanism he used later became standard
in clock and watch repeaters. Occasionally,
these come to auction, usually on better-quality
clocks.
Scientific progress in clockmaking is evident in
the early 1800s when cheaper, mass-produced
clocks came to the market making them
accessible to everyone.
American Inventor and clockmaker Eli Terry
created one of the first mass-produced clocks
cased in a wooden box with a glass door, often
with a famous place or person reverse-painted
on the glass. This was later replaced by a
transfer.
These clocks are known as ogee because of
the profile of the wood used in the frame work
or occasionally as “Kipper boxes”, this being
a name started by importers as the clocks
stacked in the hold of the ships transporting
them looked like so many stacked boxes of fish.
American steeple clocks are also quite
common, however “double decker” examples
with “waggon spring” movements, wooden
gears or lesser known manufacturers are very
much in demand by collectors and as such
can bring considerably higher prices than their
more common counterparts.
At SAS, our monthly auctions often include
clocks and they sell at prices that suit all
budgets.