BOOKS FOR COLLECTORS
_With Frontispieces and many Illustrations_
_Large Crown 8vo, cloth._
CHATS ON ENGLISH CHINA.
By ARTHUR HAYDEN.
CHATS ON OLD FURNITURE.
By ARTHUR HAYDEN.
CHATS ON OLD PRINTS.
(How to collect and value Old Engravings.)
By ARTHUR HAYDEN.
CHATS ON COSTUME.
By G. WOOLLISCROFT RHEAD.
CHATS ON OLD LACE AND NEEDLEWORK.
By E. L. LOWES.
CHATS ON ORIENTAL CHINA.
By J. F. BLACKER.
CHATS ON OLD MINIATURES.
By J. J. FOSTER, F.S.A.
CHATS ON ENGLISH EARTHENWARE.
(Companion volume to "Chats on English China.")
By ARTHUR HAYDEN.
CHATS ON AUTOGRAPHS.
By A. M. BROADLEY.
CHATS ON PEWTER.
By H. J. L. J. MASSÉ, M.A.
CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS.
By FRED. J. MELVILLE.
CHATS ON OLD JEWELLERY AND TRINKETS
By MACIVER PERCIVAL.
CHATS ON COTTAGE AND FARMHOUSE FURNITURE.
(Companion volume to "Chats on Old Furniture.")
By ARTHUR HAYDEN.
CHATS ON OLD COINS.
By FRED. W. BURGESS.
CHATS ON OLD COPPER AND BRASS.
By FRED. W. BURGESS.
CHATS ON HOUSEHOLD CURIOS.
By FRED. W. BURGESS.
CHATS ON OLD SILVER.
By ARTHUR HAYDEN.
CHATS ON JAPANESE PRINTS.
By ARTHUR DAVISON FICKE.
CHATS ON MILITARY CURIOS.
By STANLEY C. JOHNSON.
CHATS ON OLD CLOCKS AND WATCHES.
By ARTHUR HAYDEN.
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD.,
NEW YORK: F. A. STOKES COMPANY.
[Illustration]
CHATS ON OLD CLOCKS
BY
ARTHUR HAYDEN
AUTHOR OF "CHATS ON COTTAGE AND FARMHOUSE FURNITURE,"
"CHATS ON OLD PRINTS," ETC.
WITH A FRONTISPIECE AND 80 ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN LTD.
ADELPHI TERRACE
_First published in 1917_
(_All rights reserved_)
DEDICATION
TIME, you laggard, take my little book,
And point to those who have a curious mind
That record herein they may hidden find
Of Huygens' wordy war with Dr. Hooke:
Of David Ramsay's search for secret hoard:
Of Thomas Chamberlaine de Chelmisforde.
Many a maker left his graven name,--
That by your leave stands yet on dial plate,--
With legend _Fecit_, of uncertain date,
Proud with the hope that time would bring him fame.
Death stopped the wheels of maker and machine:
TIME! will you not their memory keep green?
TIME, take my tribute to your flying feet;
Paper will shortly crumble into dust.
You guard the guerdon free from moth and rust,
Your even finger sifts the chaff from wheat;
Hold me from hurt, I worship at your shrine
With every pulse-beat,--Father, make me thine.
A.H.
PREFACE
A preface should be personal. An author who writes on such subjects as
Old Furniture and Old China, with a view to educating public taste and
attempting to show why certain objects should be regarded more lovingly
than others, meets with a volume of correspondence from collectors.
Threaded through such correspondence, extended over a long period, I
find the constant demand for a volume dealing with old clocks in a
popular manner.
There is no house without its clock or clocks, and few collectors
of old furniture have excluded clocks from their hobby. I have been
therefore blamed that I did not include some more detailed treatment
of clocks in my volumes on "Old Furniture" and "Cottage and Farmhouse
Furniture," my readers very justly advancing the argument that clocks
form part of the study of domestic furniture as a whole.
This may be admitted. But in the endeavour to satisfy such a want on
the part of my clients, I plead that the subject of clockmaking is one
to which years of study must be devoted.
Since the first appearance of my _Chats on Old Furniture_ in 1905,
I have not been unmindful of the co-related subject of old clocks.
Over ten years of study, running parallel with my other work on the
evolution of ornament and decoration of the English home, has enabled
me to gather a mass of material and to attempt to satisfy the request
for a complementary volume to my _Chats on Old Furniture_ and _Chats on
Cottage and Farmhouse Furniture_.
To this end I have embodied in this present volume many facts relating
to provincial styles as well as Scottish and Irish types, with lists of
local makers not before published.
To the critics to whom I have hitherto been indebted for realizing
the niche I desire to fill with my volumes, I preface this volume by
stating that as far as possible the technicalities of clockmaking have
been eliminated. The average reader and the average collector would
be bored by such details, although some of us might like to see them
included. I have not referred to foreign clockmaking, nor to famous
church and turret clocks, nor to marvels of horology; I have advisedly
limited my field to the English domestic clock. That such a treatment
would appeal more to the collector is my personal opinion, and I trust
my critics may incline to my view.
The illustrations in the volume have been chosen to illustrate the
letterpress and to illuminate points I endeavour to make in regard to
the evolution of the various types coming under my observation.
I have to express my indebtedness to the authorities of the British
Museum for permission to include illustrations of examples in that
collection, and I am similarly indebted to the authorities of the
National Museum, Dublin.
By the courtesy of the Corporation of Nottingham I am reproducing
a clock in their collection, and similarly by the courtesy of the
Bristol Corporation I am including an example in their possession.
The Corporation of Glasgow have afforded me permission to include
a remarkable example of Scottish work, and the authorities of the
Metropolitan Museum, New York, have accorded me a similar privilege in
illustrating specimens in their collection.
Among those who have generously augmented my researches and come to my
aid in regard to local makers, I desire to express my obligation to
George H. Hewitt, Esq., J.P., of Liverpool, who arranged the clocks in
the exhibit at the Liverpool Tercentenary Exhibition in 1907, and to E.
Rimbault Dibdin, Esq., of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. To Basil
Anderton, Esq., of the Public Libraries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and to
T. Leo Reid, Esq., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I am especially grateful
for solid help in regard to North Country makers. To H. Tapley-Soper,
Esq., City Librarian, Exeter, I am indebted for names of West-Country
makers, and to A. Bromley Sanders, Esq., of Exeter, I am obliged for
information relating to local clocks coming under his purview for
many years. James Davies, Esq., of Chester, and S. H. Hamer, Esq.,
of Halifax, have enlarged my horizon in regard to local makers. H.
Wingent, Esq., of Rochester, an enthusiastic collector and connoisseur
of old clocks, has kindly enabled me to reproduce one of his examples.
To Herbert Bolton, Esq., of the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, I am
indebted for the inclusion of a fine specimen in that collection.
I desire especially to record the generous aid I have had from Percy
Webster, Esq., of Great Portland Street, London, who is well known as a
connoisseur of old clocks, and from his son, Malcolm R. Webster, Esq.,
who have given me practical assistance in regard to verifying facts
from actual examples.
To Thomas Rennie, Esq., of the Glasgow Art Galleries and Museums, I
desire to record thanks. To Edward Campbell, Esq., of Glasgow, who has
enriched my volume with examples of Scottish work in his collection, I
am indebted for information regarding Scottish makers embodied in this
volume.
I am, by the kindness of John Smith, Esq., of Edinburgh, author of _Old
Scottish Clockmakers_, and of his publisher, William J. Hay, Esq., John
Knox's House, Edinburgh, enabled to produce names and dates of certain
Scottish makers not recorded elsewhere. In this connection my friend
William R. Miller, Esq., of Leith, has spared no time to help me to do
justice to Scottish makers, and I am especially grateful to him for his
kindly enthusiasm. He was there at the "chap o' the knok" when I asked
his help.
Westropp Dudley, Esq., of the National Museum, Dublin, has extended
to me his courtesy in enabling the inclusion of Irish makers coming
under his research. To Arthur Deane, Esq., of the Public Art Gallery
and Museum, Belfast, I am similarly obliged for data relative to old
Belfast clockmakers.
To the many friends who have during an extended period generously
supplemented my own studies by supplying me with data in regard to
provincial makers and other hitherto unelucidated matters, I wish to
offer my cordial thanks.
To my readers in general, whether they be collectors of old English
china or earthenware, of furniture, or of prints, or of old silver,
I desire to record my appreciation of their kindness in regard to my
volumes on these subjects. I have honestly endeavoured to treat each
sub-head concerning the evolution of design in the English home with
sane reasoning, and I trust with ripe judgment. I have assiduously
collected facts and studiously attempted to marshal them, each by each,
according to relative value. Popular my volumes may be, but it is my
hope that they may contribute something of permanent value to the
subjects with which they deal.
ARTHUR HAYDEN.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE 11
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 21
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 27
Time and its measurement--Day and night--Early mechanism--The
domestic clock--The personal clock--Rapid phases of
invention--The dawn of science--The great English masters of
clockmaking--The several branches of a great art--What to value
and what to collect--Hints for beginners
CHAPTER II
THE BRASS LANTERN CLOCK 45
The domestic clock--Its use as a bracket or wall
clock--Seventeenth-century types--Continuance of manufacture in
provinces--Their appeal to the collector
CHAPTER III
THE LONG-CASE CLOCK--THE PERIOD OF VENEER
AND MARQUETRY 67
What is veneer?--What is marquetry?--The use of veneer and
marquetry on long-case clocks--No common origin of design--_Le
style réfugié_--Derivative nature of marquetry clock-cases--The
wall-paper period--The incongruities of marquetry
CHAPTER IV
THE LONG-CASE CLOCK--THE PERIOD OF LACQUER 105
What is lac?--Its early introduction into this country--"The
Chinese taste"--Colour _versus_ form--Peculiarities of the
lacquered clock-case--The English school--English amateur
imitators--Painted furniture not lacquered work--The inn clock
CHAPTER V
THE LONG-CASE CLOCK--THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 131
The stability of the "grandfather" clock--The burr-walnut
period--Thomas Chippendale--The mahogany period--Innovations of
form--The Sheraton style--Marquetry again employed in decoration
CHAPTER VI
THE EVOLUTION OF THE LONG-CASE CLOCK 153
Its inception--Its Dutch origin--The changing forms of the
hood, the waist, and the base--The dial and its character--The
ornamentation of the spandrel--The evolution of the hands
CHAPTER VII
THE BRACKET CLOCK 179
The term "bracket clock" a misnomer--The great series of English
table or mantel clocks--The evolution of styles--Their competition
with French elaboration
CHAPTER VIII
PROVINCIAL CLOCKS 211
Their character--Names of clockmakers found on clocks in the
provinces--The North of England: Newcastle-upon-Tyne--Yorkshire
clockmakers: Halifax and the district--Liverpool and
the district--The Midlands--The Home Counties--The West
Country--Miscellaneous makers
CHAPTER IX
SCOTTISH AND IRISH CLOCKS 255
David Ramsay, Clockmaker Extraordinary to James I--Some
early "knokmakers"--List of eighteenth-century Scottish
makers--Character of Scottish clocks--Irish clockmakers: Dublin,
Belfast, Cork--List of Irish clockmakers
CHAPTER X
A FEW NOTES ON WATCHES 281
The age of Elizabeth--Early Stuart watches--Cromwellian
period--Watches of the Restoration--The William and Mary
watch--Eighteenth-century watches--Pinchbeck and the toy
period--Battersea enamel and shagreen
INDEX 295
ILLUSTRATIONS
BRASS LANTERN CLOCK BY JOHN BUSHMAN, 1680 _Frontispiece_
CHAPTER II.--THE BRASS LANTERN CLOCK PAGE
Ship's Lantern of Silver (Danish) 47
Early Lantern Clock by Bartholomew Newsam 47
Seventeenth-century Brass Clocks, showing pendulum at front
and at back 51
Brass Lantern Clock by Daniel Quare, 1660 55
" " " with two hands and anchor pendulum 55
" " " with long pendulum, chains and weights 57
" " " by Thomas Tompion (1671-1713) 61
CHAPTER III.--THE LONG-CASE CLOCK--THE PERIOD OF VENEER AND
MARQUETRY
Long-case Clock. Maker, Jas. Leicester 75
" " " by J. Windmills, _c._ 1705 77
" " " enlargement of dial 77
" " " by Henry Harper (1690-5) 81
" " " by Martin (London), 1710 85
" " " in marquetry, "all over" style 87
Chest of Drawers (William and Mary period), showing use
of marquetry clock panel 93-5
CHAPTER IV.--THE LONG-CASE CLOCK--THE PERIOD OF
LACQUER
Long-case Clock by Joseph Dudds (1766-82) 115
" " " by Kenneth Maclennan (1760-80) 117
Inn Clock by John Grant (Fleet Street), _c._ 1785 125
<sc>Chapter V.--The Long-case Clock--the Georgian Period</sc>
Long-case Clock by Henderson, _c._ 1770 133
" " " by Thomas Wagstaff, _c._ 1780 137
" " " by Stephen Rimbault, case by Robert
Adam, _c._ 1775 139
Musical Long-case Clock (top portion) 143
Long-case Clock by James Hatton (1800-12) 145
Regulator Long-case Clock by Robert Molyneux & Sons (1825) 149
Enlargement of dial 149
CHAPTER VI.--THE EVOLUTION OF THE LONG-CASE CLOCK
Brass Dial by Henry Massy, _c._ 1680 159
" " by John Draper, _c._ 1703 159
Enlargements of Dials by John Bushman and Henry Massy 163
English Wood-carving, Cherub's Head (seventeenth century) 167
Brass Spandrel from Clock, Henry Massy (1680) 167
Stretcher of William and Mary Chair (detail) 171
Brass Spandrel of Dial of Clock 171
CHAPTER VII.--THE BRACKET CLOCK
Bracket Clocks by:--
Sam Watson (Coventry), 1687. Joseph Knibb (Oxon), 1690 181
Thomas Loomes (London), 1700. Thomas Johnson (London), 1730 183
John Page (Ipswich), 1740. Godfrey Poy (London), 1745 187
Johnson (London), 1760. Thomas Hill (London), 1760 189
American Clock by Savin & Dyer (Boston), 1780-1800 193
Staffordshire Copper Lustre Ware Vase, with painted Clock Dial 195
Bracket Clocks by:--
Alexander Cumming (London), 1770. Anonymous, 1800 199
Barraud (London), 1805. Strowbridge (Dawlish) 201
Biddell (London), 1800. Anonymous (1800-15) 205
Ebony Table Clock, decorated with Wedgwood Medallions 207
CHAPTER VIII.--PROVINCIAL CLOCKS
Copper Token, Leeds Halfpenny, 1793 218
Long-case Clock by Gilbert Chippindale (Halifax) 219
" " " enlargement of hood 219
" " " by John Weatherilt (Liverpool) (1780-85) 221
" " " by Thurston Lassell (Liverpool), 1745 225
" " " by Henry Higginbotham (Macclesfield) 227
" " " by Heywood (Northwich), 1790 231
" " " by Thomas Wall (Birmingham), _c._ 1795 233
Copper Token, Joseph Knibb, Clockmaker in Oxon 236
Long-case Clock by Joseph Knibb (Oxon), _c._ 1690 237
" " " Georgian, Spanish mahogany, by Cockey
(Warminster) 239
Brass Dial of Welsh Clock by Shenkyn Shon (Pontnedd Fechan), 1714 243
Iron Dial of Sussex Clock by Beeching (Ashburnham) 243
Long-case Clock, with oval dial, by Marston (Salop), 1761 245
Dials of Clocks by Marston (Salop) and Thomas Wall (Birmingham) 249
CHAPTER IX.--SCOTTISH AND IRISH CLOCKS
Brass Lantern Clock by Humphry Mills (Edinburgh), 1670 259
" " " do. showing movement 259
Long-case Clock by Patrick Gordon (Edinburgh), 1705-15 263
Dial of Long Pendulum Clock by Jos. Gibson (Ecclefechan),
_c._ 1750 267
" " " " enlargement, showing maker's name 267
Wall Clock, decorated in marquetry, by George Graydon
(Dublin), _c._ 1796 269
Musical Clock by George Aicken (Cork), 1770-95 273
Regulator Clock, mahogany case, by Sharp (Dublin) 275
CHAPTER X.--A FEW NOTES ON WATCHES
Old English Watches (Elizabethan, James I, Cromwellian,
and Charles II) 283
" " (eighteenth-century examples) 287
Calendar Watch (seventeenth century) by Thomas Chamberlaine
de Chelmisforde 291
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Time and its measurement--Day and night--Early mechanism--The
domestic clock--The personal clock--Rapid phases of invention--The
dawn of science--The great English masters of clockmaking--The
several branches of a great art--What to value and what to
collect--Hints for beginners.
The dictionary definition of "clock" is interesting. _Clock._--A
machine for measuring time, marking the time by the position of its
hands upon the dial-plate, or by the striking of a hammer on a bell.
Probably from old French or from Low Latin, _cloca_, _clocca_, a bell.
Dutch, _klok_. German, _glocke_, a bell.
This is exact as far as it goes, but the thought seizes one, how did
it come about that man attempted to measure time? He saw the sunrise
and he watched the fading sunset till "Hesperus with the host of
heaven came," and the night melted again into the dawn. Nature marked
definitely the hours of light and hours of darkness. That was a law
over which he had no control. Similarly he watched the seasons--the
spring, the summer, the autumn, and the winter; this gave him the
annual calendar. It becomes a matter of curious speculation how it came
to pass that man divided the year into twelve months, and how he came
to give a name to each day, and to determine seven as forming a week.
Similarly one is curiously puzzled as to why he divided day and night
into twenty-four parts, calling them hours.
These speculations lead us farther afield than the scope of this
volume. An examination of Babylonian and Greek measurements of time
is too abstruse to be included in a volume of this nature. Nor is it
necessary, however interesting such may be, to record the astronomical
observations at Bagdad of Ahmed ibn Abdullah.
We must commence with the known data that the earth revolves on its
axis in twenty-four hours, or, to be more exact, in 23 hours 56 minutes
4 seconds. Astronomical clocks recording with scientific exactitude
this phenomenon are on a plane apart, as are chronometers used by
mariners. The astronomer uses a clock with numbers on its dial plate up
to twenty-four; the common clock has only twelve hour numerals.
To come straight to modernity, it must be recognized that the
measurement of time scientifically and the measurement of time
according to civil law are two different things.
The mean Solar day used in the ordinary reckoning of time, by most
modern nations, begins at midnight. Its hours are numbered in two
series from 1 to 12--the first series, called A.M. (_ante meridian_),
before midday, and the second series, P.M. (_post meridian_), after
midday. This is a clumsy arrangement and leads to confusion. The
leading railways of the world are beginning to use the series of
twenty-four.
Let it be granted that the day consists of twenty-four hours, which is
the apparent Solar day; the starting-point was not always the same.
The Babylonians began their day at sunrise, the Athenians and Jews at
sunset, the ancient Egyptians and Romans at midnight.
In passing, it should be noted that the day is measured astronomically
by recording the period of the revolution of the earth on its axis,
determined by the interval of time between two successive transits of
the sun, the moon, or a fixed star over the same meridian.
The Solar day is exactly 24 hours, the Lunar day is 24 hours 50
minutes, and the Sidereal day is 23 hours 56 minutes.
Apparent Solar Time is shown by the sundial, and therefore depends upon
the motion of the sun. Mean Solar Time is shown by a correct clock.
The difference between Mean Time and Apparent Time, that is, between
the time shown by the clock and the sundial, is called the Equation of
Time, and in the _Nautical Almanack_, a Government publication, there
are tables showing these differences.
=Day and Night.=--Obviously the hours of darkness offered a greater
problem to the horologist than the hours of light. His sundial was of
no use at night and of little use on cloudy days. The hour-glass was
not a piece of mechanism a man would wish to employ to record the night
watches. Some other self-acting mechanism had to be devised.
The interval between sunset and sunset, or sunrise and sunrise, or
noon and noon, was divided by the Babylonians, who had a love for the
duodenary system, into twenty-four hours. It is curious to read that
"until the eighteenth century in England the hour was commonly reckoned
as the twelfth part of the time between sunrise and sunset, or between
sunset and sunrise, and hence was of varying durations" (_Webster's New
International Dictionary_, 1914).
The hour was further divided, also by the Babylonians, into periods of
sixty minutes. It was the Babylonians who first divided the circle into
360 degrees, and Ptolemy followed this division.
The dial of a clock was at first termed the _hour-plate_, as only hours
were engraved upon it and only one hand was employed. Later, another
hand was added, the minute hand, which travelled a complete circuit
while the hour hand was travelling between two hour numerals. Later,
again, a new sub-dial was added, and a seconds hand recorded the sixty
seconds which made the minute. The term "second" was at first called
"second-minute," denoting that it was the second division of an hour by
sixty. The learned John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, that extraordinary
old savant, writes in 1650: "Four flames of an equal magnitude will
be kept alive the space of sixteen _second-minutes_, though one of
these flames alone, in the same vessel, will not last at most above
twenty-five or thirty seconds."
These dry facts may serve to whet the curiosity of the student in
regard to the measurement of time and its origin. They add a piquancy
to the clock dial as we now know it. Scientific it is, as one of man's
most exact recorders of natural phenomena. That an exact timekeeper
should be found in the pocket of every schoolboy would seem an
astounding miracle to our ancestors two hundred years ago, or even less
than a hundred years ago:
'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own,
writes Pope in his _Essay on Criticism_ in 1725.
This is a damning indictment of the accuracy of watches in the early
eighteenth century, but Dickens in _Dombey and Son_ suggests equally
faulty mechanism not in true accord with the mean solar day:
"Wal'r ... a parting gift, my lad. Put it back half an hour every
morning, and about another quarter towards the arternoon, and it's a
watch that'll do you credit."
That the civil day has taken precedence of the solar day is shown by
the recent legislation in regard to Summer Time. "The Sabbath was made
for man and not man for the Sabbath," may be applied to the clock dial.
By an Act of Parliament, in spite of science and the earth's revolution
on its axis, the hands straightway mean something else. It is well that
modern clocks have no wise saws and mottoes telling of the unalterable
hand of Time; "Old Time, the clock-setter, that bald sexton, Time," as
Shakespeare says in _King John_.
=Early Mechanism.=--The problem for the old clockmakers who wished
to supplant the primitive measurement of time by candle, by the
hour-glass, and later by the sundial, was to produce a piece of
mechanism which would in twenty-four hours, the prescribed period of
day and night, indicate the flight of time hour by hour.
In rapid survey we cannot pause to enter into details. The first clocks
indicated the hour alone by a hand attached to the axis of a wheel. In
the twelfth century a new mechanism was added to strike a bell with a
hammer, showing the hours indicated by the hand. At first the motive
power was a weight acting upon toothed wheels. In the fifteenth century
a spiral spring placed in a barrel replaced the weight attached to a
string as the motive power. This led to portable clocks of smaller
dimensions being possible.
The sixteenth century is remarkable for the great advance by Italian,
by Nuremberg, and by Augsburg clockmakers. Striking and alarum clocks,
and intricate mechanism showing phases of the moon, the year, the day
of the month, and the festivals of the Church, were produced. In the
sixteenth century portable clocks received further attention in regard
to minute mechanism, resulting in what we now know as the watch. The
moment this point was reached, ornamentation of a rich and elaborate
character was applied to such objects of art, then only in the
possession of princes and nobles and the richest classes of society.
In the middle of the seventeenth century Huygens, the celebrated Dutch
astronomer and mathematician, brought great modification in the art of
clockmaking by applying the pendulum to clocks in order to regulate the
movement, "and adapting, some years later, to the balance of watches a
spring, which produced upon this balance the same effect as that of the
weight upon the pendulum" (Labarte, _Arts of the Middle Ages_).
In old clocks there is a verge escapement with a cross-bar balanced by
weights. This was in the top portion of the clock.
When the pendulum was introduced it was first placed in front of the
clock and swung backwards and forwards across the face of the dial,
being only some six inches in length, and more frequently it is found
at the back of the clock, outside the case. See illustration (p. 51) of
examples.
As it was easy safely to convert the old form of balance into pendulum
form, with hanging weight or weights, this was frequently done. So
frequently, in fact, that very few of the old balance movements remain.
See illustration (p. 57) of lantern clock with weights and pendulum.
With the advent of the "royal" or long pendulum, the domestic clock
came into being.
We now arrive at the first period of the English domestic clock, and
from this point a fairly definite record of styles and changes can be
made.
=The Domestic Clock.=--This may be said to be the clock in use in
a great house, apart from the cathedral or church clock, the turret
clock, or the more public clock common to the gaze of everybody.
The nobility employed, on the Continent and in this country, great
clockmakers to produce these new scientific timekeepers for use in
their private apartments. But there came another phase when the clock
visible to the dependent was supplanted by more delicate mechanism of
greater value and of richer ornamentation.
=The Personal Clock.=--This was the watch. It was carried on the
person. It was the gift of a lover to his mistress. It was a rich and
rare jewel of scientific construction, set in crystal, embellished with
enamel and other rich decoration. In a measure it supplanted the clock
and drove it on to a lower plane.
It demanded craftsmanship of the highest character to create these
masterpieces of horology, and the art has been continued in a separate
stream to that of clockmaking up to the present day. The watch is not
the small clock, nor is the clock the large watch. Whatever may have
been their common origin, each has developed on lines essentially
proper for the technique. As the clock has developed in mechanical
perfection, so the watch has similarly kept in parallel progress
towards the same ideal, that of the perfect timekeeper.
A long succession of mechanical inventions is attached to the clock,
and similarly the watch has demanded equal genius till both arrive at
modernity.
=The Dawn of Science.=--The mid-seventeenth century the post-Bacon
period, when Newton became President of the Royal Society, may be said
to be the dawn of science in this country. The Aristotelian method of
analysis and the practical experiment set men's minds into scientific
channels. The scientific clockmaker was the product of this period of
restless activity. Science was in leading-strings. Prince Rupert's
Drops, so familiar now, were a scientific wonder. Bishop Wilkins
and Evelyn, Locke and Dr. Harvey, were all, from different points,
attempting to unravel the secrets of nature. The Tudor Age had opened
the New World; the next century was left to discover the untravelled
paths of science and mechanism. Invention was being suckled by
Curiosity. Invention only came to manhood in the nineteenth century.
=The Great English Masters of Clockmaking.=--There is the mythical
claim for Richard Harris, who is said to have invented the first
pendulum clock in Europe, fixed in the turret of St. Paul's, Covent
Garden, in 1640 or earlier. The Huygens pendulum was hung by a silken
cord, and the arc described by the bob or weight at its end was a
segment of a circle. Dr. Hooke invented the thin, flexible steel
support of the pendulum, producing more scientific accuracy. In 1658
he invented the _anchor escapement_, which, together with his spring
to the pendulum, is still used, although the "dead-beat" escapement
invented by George Graham has supplanted the "anchor" in timekeepers
requiring greater exactitude.
In regard to Robert Hooke and his claim to being the inventor of the
balance spring for watches, an invention claimed by Christopher Huygens
de Zulichem, there is an acrimonious dispute and lengthy correspondence
thereon. The Royal Society had published in their _Philosophical
Transactions_ for March 25th, 1675, the discovery of Huygens, who
visited England in 1661 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. Dr.
Hooke protested. It appears that one of the "ballance double watches"
was presented to Charles II and was inscribed "Robert Hooke _inven._
1658. T. Tompion _fecit_ 1675." There is the record that George Graham
declared that he "had heard Tompion say he was employed three months
that year by Mr. Hooke in making some parts of these watches before
he let him know for what use they were designed, and that Tompion was
used to say he thought the first invention of them was owing to Mr.
Hooke."[1]
To come to the great masters of the art of English clockmaking. In
the transactions of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers it is
recorded that "in July 1704 it was by the Master reported that certain
persons at Amsterdam are in the habit of putting the names of Tompion,
Windmills, Quare, Cabrier, Lamb, and other well-known makers on their
works and selling them as English."[2] A committee was appointed to put
an end to such abuses.
[1] _Life of Robert Hooke_, by R. Waller, 1705. _Biographica
Britannica._
[2] _Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers of the City
of London_, by Samuel Elliott Atkins and Henry Overall, F.S.A., 1881
(_British Museum Library_, 10349 _gg._ 11).
Here then we have five of the leading English clockmakers in 1704, to
which we can add George Graham, the inventor of the "orrery," named
after his patron, Robert Boyle, Earl of Cork and Orrery, and to make
the number up to twenty-five we add the following. These men are in the
first flight. Ahasuerus Fromanteel (and the family of Fromanteel, of
Dutch origin), the first to introduce the pendulum into England; Edward
East; Joseph Knibb, father and son; William Dutton, Matthew and Thomas
Dutton, John Ebsworth, John Harrison, J. Grant, Stephen Rimbault,
Thomas Earnshaw, John Arnold, Thomas Mudge, Christopher Pinchbeck,
William Tomlinson, Justin Vulliamy, and Benjamin and Benjamin Lewis
Vulliamy.
In _Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers_, by the late F. J.
Britten, there is a list of some ten thousand names of clockmakers, so
that examples coming in the possession of collectors can readily be
checked by this list. But the fact that a maker's name is not in this
directory does not exclude him from recognition as a master, though
possibly he may not be one of the great masters.
=The Several Branches of a Great Art.=--The timekeeper--whether it be
the scientific astronomical clock, or the chronometer used by mariners,
or the modern watch, minute in size but recording time with accuracy,
or the bracket or table clock, or the long-case clock--has proceeded
on parallel lines of development. These types represent the several
branches of the great art of clockmaking.
Clockmakers and watchmakers very soon specialized when the correct
standard had been reached, and further inventions effected economy in
mechanism rather than drastic changes in principle making for further
exactitude. Specialization may be said to have undone clockmaking. We
realize that the clockmaker could not cast the brass spandrel ornaments
and chase them, or engrave the dial. We do not expect him to, nor did
he, lay the marquetry, or become a lacquer varnisher in the cases. We
cannot call upon him to cast the bell in the chiming movement, or to
make the catgut which is wound around the drum carrying the weights.
Nor was he an expert in metal design to pierce the hands and employ
delicate ornament in so doing. Perhaps we may forgive him employing
a special trade to supply him with delicate springs. But the factory
system of the middle nineteenth century began to eat into the vitals of
clockmaking in this country as a scientific craft. Makers of wheels,
makers of chains, makers of every conceivable part of the movement
sprang into being. No one of whom was a clockmaker, and no unit of any
such industry could put a clock together. The clockmaker, and even
then there is something personal yet remaining, became an assembler
of component parts. He certainly understood the completed whole and
made the wheels move and the hands record exact and perfect time. That
is something, and it is a very great thing too. But how shorn of his
former glory is the clockmaker in these conditions!
In this volume we deal with the collecting period, which is the stage
prior to this, but it is possible to look ahead as well as backward.
Factory-made clocks will be made, perfect timekeepers without doubt.
But there is still the great possibility that the clockmaker may seize
his own and wrest the laurels from the impersonal syndicate. To him who
can add personality to a clock--that something which parts put together
with mechanical precision lack--there awaits a glorious heritage. The
soul of the living clock must echo the soul of its human maker. The old
masters have left to posterity living organisms which will not die.
It rests with the public to say whether they prefer the gramophone
to the singer, the piano-player to the accomplished pianist. If the
clock of tomorrow is to be a mere soulless machine, the demand will be
met. But if it is to revert to that higher plane of the old masters of
clockmaking, it is for those who love beauty and truth to make their
desires imperative. For the moment, therefore, the study of the old and
the perfect claims the loving attention of the collector who sees new
lamps, like those which the magician in Aladdin's palace proffered for
sale, in place of old.
=What to Value and what to Collect.=--The appreciation of old clocks is
a natural gift. To one his mezzotints, to another his Chelsea china,
to another his old silver plate. But to all lovers of fine furniture
the English clock appeals sympathetically. It has a twofold claim to
recognition. It is, if it be a fine old English clock by an English
maker, a reliable piece of mechanism as a timekeeper. It is in certain
periods representative, in its marquetry or lacquered case, of styles
of decoration and design now only equalled by copyists. If it is by
one of the leading English clockmakers its movements are unequalled.
It stands as a monument to a great scientific craftsmanship now almost
extinct. The great English clockmakers of the first flight "were not of
an age but for all time."
Roughly speaking, the first twenty-five years of the eighteenth century
and the first thirty-five years of the nineteenth century represent
two periods when the clockmaker was doing splendid work. The clocks of
the intervening period are of value as representing work of extreme
carefulness, and are of course worthy of the attention and admiration
of the collector.
In the first period a crowd of skilled scientific clockmakers followed
each other in rapid succession and brought the art of horology to
perfection. During this first period the clock cases and the clock
dials came under artistic impulses not since equalled. It therefore
follows that for these two reasons the clocks of the first period are
most highly appreciated and are of great value.
The second period, that is, the first thirty-five years of the
nineteenth century, represents an era of established and sound
technique, exhibiting craftsmanship of a high order struggling for
supremacy and recognition at a time when factory inventions and
factory-made substitutes commenced to dominate not only the art of the
clockmaker but other personal crafts. During this time the case and
the dial cannot be said to possess the high artistic qualities found
in the earlier period. Art was beginning to sink into the Slough of
Despond which for half a century characterized most European arts, both
fine and applied.
=Hints for Beginners.=--To set out to buy an old clock is for the tyro
like setting out to buy a horse. In the latter case the teeth may
be filed and the hoofs pared to give a simulation of youth to which
possibly the beast could not lay claim. In the former, added touches
would counterfeit antiquity: here a pair of apparently old hands, there
an antiquated-looking dial, and an enshrining case of no particular
period, but seeming to bear Time's own impress of age, till one is
inclined to say, to quote the _Merchant of Venice_: "I never knew so
young a body with so old a head."
The following chapters will indicate the outline of a complex and
intricate subject. The case, the dial, the hands, all have to be
studied with no little skill in comparison and deduction in regard to
errors in clumsy repairers or unskilled restorers, who with vandal
hands have destroyed the balance of fine work and introduced component
parts which are harlequin to the trained collector's eye. This much
for the _visible_. Then there is the movement, that is, the mechanism
which makes the clock a clock. This is unseen by the average snapper-up
of old clocks, or when seen not understood. There are those collectors
who stop short in their requirements. A clock is an ornament to a
well appointed home, in the hall, in the smoking-room, or in the
dining-room. They are unconcerned as to whether it is a timekeeper or
a monument, "long to be patient and silent to wait like a ghost that is
speechless." One longs to call aloud to such an encumbrance with its
dead wheels and its atrophied hands: "Watchman! What of the night?"
It is a servant that serves no longer. It is like a poor relation
thrusting his company upon his fellow-guests with dumb tongue and a
solemn demeanour telling of former glories.
But the sane modern collector wants an old clock not because it is old,
but because he rightly has assumed that there are certain qualities of
the old clockmaker's art which are not to be found in later periods.
Wise in his generation, he places himself not in the hands of a dealer
who has sold a thousand clocks, but in the hands of a practical
clockmaker who has made one. A trained man having a knowledge of old
movements, and to whom they are something more than inanimate objects,
will advise the collector. To such a man a clock is something with a
soul. To him one goes who will set the silent wheels moving and endow
the dead clockmaker's heritage with pulsating life.
But--the word of warning cannot be too strongly sounded to all
possessors of old clocks. Every year fine examples of old work are
ruined for ever by ignorant repairers and restorers. In their little
day they have destroyed movements and parts which can never be
replaced. Of all arts, the art of the clockmaker has suffered most at
the hands of the modern destroyer of work he does not understand.