The use of these clocks started spreading among the wealthy across Europe and Asia and was considered as the most accurate way of telling time for over a century or two. That discovery led to a number of attempts on clock creation, eventually resulting in the very first long case clock that William Clement created in 1670. They originated from Galileo’s discovery in 1582 that pendulums could be used in time-keeping. Similarly, makers in Boston often decorated their clocks with pierced fretwork cresting.While there isn’t much information on the grandmother clock, it’s worth noting that all pendulum timepieces share the same history. Tall-case clocks could also feature carved rosettes carved flame and urn finials floral, leaf, and shell carvings and ogee-bracket feet.Ĭonnecticut clockmakers often used "whale's tails" cresting on the hood and a block-and-shell motif on the case door. The lunette at the top of the dial often featured animals, buildings, landscapes, pastoral scenes, and seascapes. The Corinthian-style columns were sometimes fitted with brass capitals.Ĭlockmakers often decorated the spandrels, or corner frame elements, with birds, figures, flowers, fruit, foliage, geometric designs, or scrolls. The wood columns on each front corner of the hood could be baluster, plain, Jacobean, or Corinthian. Both were often decorated with brass or carved wooden finials and frets. An 8-day movement required owners to perform weekly windings, while 30-hour movements needed daily windings.Īrtisans designed the earliest long-case clock pediments, or hoods, in broken-arch or scroll shapes. Grandfather clocks may have 30-hour or 8-day movements, depending on whether they are made of wood or brass. Some cheaper versions may have paper dials. Enameled dials were also popular during this period. Hand-painted metal and wood dials became common afterward. With the invention of quartz clocks in the 1960s, pendulum clocks gradually fell from favor.īefore 1780, artisans fitted tall-case clocks with break-arch (or broken-arch) dials, typically elaborately decorated and made of brass. Manufacturers also finished some cases with lacquer work and marquetry. Cheaper varieties were rarely decorated and often made of pine or painted pine. Cherry, maple, and satinwood inlays frequently decorated expensive clock cases. Birch, pine, and walnut were equally favorable. Almost all tall-case clocks were mass-produced after 1810.įactory-produced pieces in the 19th century were commonly made of solid or veneered mahogany. In the 1800s, artisans switched from making clock cases with walnut to cherry and mahogany in all the major styles, including Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, Queen Anne, and Empire. The arched clock dial was introduced during this time, depicting the moon phases in the crescent or lunette pattern. Because clockmakers, cabinetmakers (or joiners), and carvers collaborated on these timepieces, long-case clocks in the early 1800s were also too expensive for most Americans.Īmerican clockmakers began to differentiate from the design of their English counterparts in the mid-1700s, showcasing their own styles of superior craftsmanship. They also began to decorate clock faces elaborately. Since metals were in short supply, early clocks had woodwork movements.īetween the 1670s and 1870s, artisans improved the design, shape, composition, and movements of long-case clocks. Domestic production of these clocks began around 1695 in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The first American settlers imported the country's earliest long-case clocks in the 1680s. Long-case clocks entered the "Royal Age" century beginning in the 1630s, during which only royalty and nobility could afford the expensive timepieces. In 1715, George Graham invented the deadbeat escapement that increased the clock movement's accuracy. These inventions were revolutions in clockmaking that made way for the weighted pendulum of the tall-case clock. Known as the "Royal Pendulum," it was thirty-nine inches long and took a full second to swing in one direction. In 1671, English clockmaker William Clement invented the anchor escapement using a pendulum. Grandfather clocks had their start in 1656 when Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens introduced pendulum oscillations in timepieces.
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