Written some years ago for a series in The Antique & Collectors Gazette, we hope that you find these articles enjoyable and informative .
Good medicine for a dodgy old ticker Welcome to the first in an exclusive series for Antiques & Collectables by leading horologist Anthony Gray.FRSA. MBHI. How would you react to the suggestion that you drive the family car every day for the next ten years without once having it serviced or topping up the oil ? Already you are wondering which mental institution was foolish enough to release me. Yet this is almost exactly the kind of treatment that a great many people mete out to their valuable antique clocks. The pendulum of a longcase clock will make a total of thirty one million, five hundred and thirty six thousand vibrations during the course of a year and over a ten year period will traverse a distance of some twenty thousand miles. I can think of no other domestic machine which is expected to perform in this manner and then be greeted with something akin to shocked surprise if it fails to repeat the exercise for another ten years. “We got it from the wife’s grandmother about fifteen years ago and it’s always kept perfect time, so you see there can’t be very much wrong with it, can there!” Given that the offending machine is frequently some two hundred years old it is a testament to the skill and craftsmanship of the maker that the above statement is often true, there is indeed "not much wrong with it". More often than not, a clock which has stopped in this manner will not contain any parts which have actually broken, or even worn beyond repair. The problem is invariably one of dirt and encrusted oil allied to worn pivots and escape pallets. However, some skilled and knowledgeable remedial action is certainly advisable at this point, and it is not usually within the scope of most owners to attempt this themselves…a can of 3in1 or WD40 will definitely not do the trick, and in the event that either of these substances do restore the clock to what appears to be some semblance of normal activity, it will not be for long, and almost certainly at the expense of a far greater amount of damage to the movement than already exists. In order to gain a better understanding of the problems that can arise with clockwork mechanisms, let us first take a general look at the way in which all clocks work. The easiest way to do this is to divide the mechanism into six clearly defined divisions which together make up the whole. With few exceptions the following applies to any clock:-
Taken as a whole, the above is a general recipe for any sort of clock, and contains the minimum ingredients required for a timepiece to function. Consider if you like, each section to be a basic theme on which there are numerous variations, and in particular the escapement, of which the varieties are easily a match for the 57 provided by Heinz ! Whatever complexities are introduced (and there can be many), these six basic ingredients must always be there…they must be well designed, well crafted and assembled to fine tolerances, such that friction is reduced to the absolute minimum. By now it must be apparent that even the most basic machine, with it’s six essential parts, acting together in complete harmony, is a fine achievement both in terms of design and engineering, allied to the fact that it can suffer years of neglect and still continue to function (albeit only just) must make it one of the all time greats of mechanical engineering. …Apart from being a pleasure to own, antique clocks are still an undervalued sector of the market, and therefore constitute a good long term investment, but only if properly cared for by a well trained and sympathetic restorer, who knows how to strike the right balance between necessary repair and conservation. How do you choose a good clock restorer ? The answer is probably more straightforward than you might imagine. Unless you have been personally recommended to somebody by a friend whose judgement you can trust, do not entrust your clock to anyone who is not a member of The British Horological Institute. A restorer you find listed in the phone book with any of the following letter after his name (M.B.H.I. or F.B.H.I.) can be considered competent and reliable. The requirements of membership of the Institute include adherence to a strict code of practise and conduct, and a dissatisfied client can make an official complaint to the Secretary of the Institute, who will follow it up rigorously. Ask your restorer for proof of membership, and also for an estimate of his charges…a genuine member will be happy to comply with both requests. Do think twice before taking your clock to the local high street jeweller unless he can guarantee that the work will be done on his own premises by a qualified craftsman. Worthy though he may be at his own profession, the average jeweller will farm out clocks to the cheapest bidder and then add a very hefty sum to the final bill for himself. A good clock can be ruined by bad repair work, and at best will leave you with a much bigger bill when it finally gets into the hands of a good restorer…nothing is more time consuming than undoing the damage of a ‘botcher’, especially the ugly blobs of solder that all too frequently appear where they do not belong. I have often seen pivot holes that could easily have been re-bushed, closed up instead with several hefty blows from a ball hammer. This sort of damage is irreversible and can only detract from the value of a good clock. In conclusion, the aims of a good clock restorer should be as follows:- An article of this length can obviously only scratch the surface of this huge subject, but hopefully the reader will have gained a little understanding of why his antique clock occasionally needs a little bit of loving care.
Have clock will travel. The story of the carriage clock.
Originating as a practical timepiece for travellers, the carriage clock took 19th century England by storm. The French manufacturers shrugged a Gallic shrug and churned them out by the bucketful…”what can one do? Those crazy Anglais!”
As this article is primarily concerned with the type of every day carriage clock that most people will be familiar with, I will of necessity omit a great deal of historical background. Suffice to say that the carriage clock is not an “invention”…it did not suddenly appear on the scene in a given year, but evolved from earlier forms of portable timepiece; coach watches, capucines and the pendules d’officier, a wonderfully elaborate little clock that was taken on military campaigns by Napoleon’s generals. The first person to produce carriage clocks in any sort of quantity (semi-mass production) was the French clock maker Paul Garnier. In 1839 he was awarded a silver medal for them by the “Exposition des produits de L’Industrie Francaise” who stated that he had for the past nine years been making a very large number of “petit pendules portatives ou de voyage”. Other fine makers rapidly followed suit, both French and English, and the following names were (and still are) to be found on high quality carriage clocks; Theodore Leroy, Raingo Freres, Lepine, Jules, Berthoud, Jacot and Drocourt. Around about the same time the English clockmakers James McCabe, Vulliamy, Dent and Frodsham were also producing some fine examples. By about 1860 and thanks to a fairly simple and standard design introduced by Paul Garnier, the carriage clock industry was beginning to shift into high gear ! Only the very best of them were now the work of a single maker and interestingly virtually none of them were ever sold in France ! Carriage clock mania had spread throughout Britain like some virulent infection, and virtually the entire output was for export to England. Although finished and cased in Paris, the main centre of production for the movements was based in Saint Nicolas d’Alierment near Dieppe and the Jura region of the Franche Comte. Assembled but unfinished movements called “blanc roulants” were now mass-produced, the vast majority from the factory of Japy Freres, who had devised special machines for this purpose. The escapements (either the cylinder or lever platform types) came from several specialist manufacturers on the French-Swiss border. The main springs, cases and glass would come from yet another source. Rather like the modern car industry, this sub-contracting of a series of standard parts enabled a wide variety of clocks to be produced with different complications, eg; striking, repeating or complicated calendar work. It also permitted the end retailer who had purchased in bulk to put his own name on the dial. Many clocks are to be found bearing the name of, say Mappin & Webb, although they had no hand in actually making the clock. To facilitate ease of production, case styles and overall dimensions now became fairly well standardised too. The earlier cases were “one piece”, pinned and brazed; this rapidly gave way to the multiple piece “boite” (a mixture of brass castings and pressings) which were then screwed together. Each style was given a name. ‘Gorge’ being the most expensive standard style and generally only used by the best makers, through ‘Canelee’, ‘Corniche’ and ‘Obis’ (the cheapest style and current from about 1880 onwards). An interesting tip for today’s collector is that the earlier the case the larger the area of glass it is likely to have. Taken in conjunction with other factors, this is quite a useful guide to dating an early clock. For today’s collector, an ample supply of good quality carriage clocks are still to be found, and the price paid will largely depend on what sort of strike is employed. Carriage clocks were made with four distinctive types of striking:- PLAIN STRIKE: Only the hours and half hours are struck. PETITE SONNERIE: Sounds on two bells of different tones (ting-tang), and indicates the quarter hours as well as the hour and half hour. GRANDE SONNERIE: As above, with the addition that the preceding hour is also struck at each quarter. MINUTE REPEATER: A per ‘Grande Sonnerie’, with the addition of sounding the number of minutes that have elapsed since the last quarter. Many ‘timepiece only’ clocks were also made and these do not of course strike at all. Currently the collector should expect to pay between £300 for a straight timepiece to £7,000 for a good quality minute repeater. This is a reasonable guideline in today’s market and makes an interesting comparison with the price in 1914, when an ‘Obis’ timepiece with cylinder escapement could be purchased for one guinea. The comparatively wide range of good quality clocks still available make the collection of these lovely clocks a most rewarding past-time, and those whose appetites have been whetted should easily be able to find an attractive example within the range of their pocket. Happy collecting !
Simply the best
The story of the English bracket clock begins in1657…midway between the execution of Charles I and the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, this date marks the first commercial application of the pendulum to a clock. Although the event is strictly attributable to the Dutch scientist Christian Huygens, it was in England under the direction of such Horological luminaries as Thomas Tompion and Daniel Quare that the idea was most fully and rapidly developed, so much so that by 1680 English Clockmaking had reached a position of such pre-eminence as to remain unchallenged for another hundred years. It is the beautiful and skilfully crafted bracket clocks of this period that to this day remain amongst the most sought after (and the most expensive) of all clocks The term ‘bracket clock’, rather misleadingly, implies that clocks of this type were made to sit on a bracket which was mounted on the wall. Very often this is quite true and many bracket clocks, particularly those of French origin, were supplied with their own matching bracket…more often thought he clock was not designed to have any fixed position and would almost certainly have been moved around from room to room. The invention of the pendulum (or more strictly the application of it) had a very profound influence on both the external appearance of clocks and on the construction of their movements. Prior to 1657, bracket clocks (also longcase clocks) simply did not exist. The introduction of the pendulum offered the possibility of ‘accurate’ timekeeping and also necessitated the use of much finer and more delicate wheel work than had formerly been employed in the earlier lantern and table clocks. To protect this delicate mechanism, it was considered necessary to house it in an enclosed wooden case as a protection against dust etc. This posed a problem for the clockmaker who, though highly skilled in his own craft, usually had little or no grounding in the intricacies of woodworking, so this aspect of the work was now handed over to the joiner or casemaker. The joiner was invariably a trained furniture maker, so it follows that clock cases started to assume the stylistic appearance of the furniture of the period. This accounts for the stunning craftsmanship and the beauty of many bracket clock cases. The earlier attribution of the pendulum to Christian Huygens takes us into what is in truth a rather grey area; both Galileo and the astronomer Johan Hevel are known to have experimented with pendulums and in fact a whole string of people laid claim to this invention. What we do know is that Huygens was the first person to commercially exploit the idea in connection with a clock, and in 1657 he assigned his rights in the matter together with his design for a pendulum clock to one Samuel Coster, a skilled clockmaker from The Hague who actually produced versions of this clock. Two of them are still extant and can be seen at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and The Time Museum in Rockford Illinois. These are probably the earliest surviving examples of a bracket clock. Although he earliest bracket clocks, including those by Samuel Coster, were designed such that both the striking and the going train were driven by one single spring, it soon became accepted practice to use a separate spring for each wheel train and for the first time the two trains were placed side by side. In the manner familiar to us today, it thus became possible to key wind both trains through holes in the front of the dial. The first clocks usually had cases in the ‘architectural’ style, the carcass made of oak and maybe veneered in tortoiseshell with ebony mouldings. In the plinth, or base of the case, a drawer would be provided to hold the winding key. The relatively plain dial centre was engraved with a central rosette and the time read from a narrow silvered chapter ring. The hour hand would be of a simple but finely crafted spade design and the triangular spaces outside the chapter ring filled with finely cast and chiselled ‘cherubs’ head’ spandrels. In the finest examples these spandrels were occasionally made from solid silver. In early examples the maker’s name was always engraved at the bottom of the dial and employed the use of Latin. A clock by the well known maker Joseph Knibb (circa 1680-90) would thus be inscribed ‘Joseph Knibb Londini Fecit’. Another interesting feature, occasionally found on early bracket clocks, is the engraving on the chapter ring of every single minute from 0 to 60. People had not been accustomed to telling the time with ‘two hands’ (earlier types of clock employed only a single hour hand) and this was intended to assist in the process. This feature, although interesting, is rare, and not something that you are likely to come across in your local auction room ! It was discontinued in about 1675 and it then became the practice to engrave the figures for every fifth minute only. The earlier type of architectural case design which included a pediment on top of the case and pillars at each corner, soon gave was to the well known ‘bell’ or dome shaped top; this also allowed for the provision of a carrying handle for the clock, a feature not previously in evidence. Overall case design became simpler, discarding corner pillars in favour of a plain flat door right across the front of the clock. The top rail of the door was usually pierced in a fine fretwork pattern and then backed with silk to assist in hearing the strike of the clock. Another common feature was two key hole escutcheons, one to embellish the key hole, and a corresponding dummy on the other side to give a decorative balance. Right from the outset, nearly all bracket clocks were devised to run for eight days, and also to strike the hours. This latter feature, something which today we might take for granted, often presented the early clockmaker with considerable difficulty…the spring to drive the striking train had to be made entirely by hand (beaten to length and thickness from a single strip of steel). Both the length and strength required to drive a striking train for eight days was thus a difficult achievement. The famous clockmaker Joseph Knibb devised a novel method of economising on the power requirements of this spring by devising something called ‘Roman Striking’. This system required the use of two bells of different pitch and size; any part of a number represented by the Roman numeral I was struck on the small bell and the Roman numeral V on the large bell (X was considered to be two times V). Thus to strike eleven (XI), the clock would sound two strokes on the large bell and one on the small bell. (A total of only three strokes instead of the eleven which would be heard in a conventional strike)> I must again point out that you are unlikely to find one of these clocks in your local junk shop ! They are exceedingly rare, highly prized by serious collectors and when they do appear, mindbogglingly expensive. To the reader who wanted a potted history of the bracket clock, and wonders why there is no mention of the likes of Dent or Vulliamy, my apologies for not yet having gone further than 1680 ! This will be remedied in the next article, but the period which has been discussed here is of profound importance in terms of English Clockmaking and very much set the ground rules for the next hundred years and beyond. This was the era of Thomas Tompion, Edward east, and Joseph Knibb to mention just three of the then famous makers, whose names remain to this day a byword for excellence, quality and beauty of the highest possible order.
Anthony Gray Clocks, South Goodwin House, St. Margaret's Bay, Kent CT15 6DT |
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the form in which we know it today was made in Paris in the first quarter of the 19th century by the greatest watchmaker ever to have lived, Abraham Louis Breguet. It is futile to say any more about this wonderful man. His clocks were without exception enormously complicated, equally expensive and crafted to a standard so high that it almost beggars belief. Examples which appear at auction today can be expected to ascend rapidly into five or even six figures.
