Smith Restoring Grandfather Clocks

1. Auflage 1995
ISBN: 978-0-7198-3164-5
Verlag: NAG
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 240 Seiten

The grandfather clock, an entirely new kind of furniture, first appeared in the late seventeenth century. From then on, with its long case to protect pendulum and weights, its rugged movement and large, clear indication of time, it has been a success story right up to the present day. Virtually none of these clocks is beyond repair and often the work required is within the scope of inexperienced owners. This is the first full-length book to cover repair and restoration of these attractive and often valuable antiques, including their casework. The first part outlines how to clean and service the clock 'works' and also how to refurbish the dial, while in the second part restoration or casework, both structural repairs and finishing, is considered. The illustrations are of two actual clocks (one eight-day and one thirty-hour) and work proceeding on them. The last part of the book sketches common variations from these particular examples. Armed with this book and appropriate tools (for work on both movement and case), the owner of a dilapidated grandfather clock will be encouraged and given the know-how to restore it to life as a useful and attractive clock and a prized possession.

Eric Smith had an interest in clocks from his teenage years and, in retirement, ran a small clock repair and restoration business. He was the author of many books including six on clocks. He was also a regular contributor to various horological magazines. Eric Smith died in 2006. Brian Smith, the son of Eric Smith, shares his father's interest in repairing and restoring clocks and ran his own antique furniture restoration business for five years. He now lives in France.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Smith, Eric

Smith, Brian

Leseproben

1 Grandfather Clocks: A Profile

As you may know, ‘grandfather clock’ is not a name normally used by the trade, who instead refer to ‘longcase clocks’. In earlier days these clocks were also known as ‘coffin clocks’, for obvious reasons. The ‘grandfather’ label dates back to a popular American song from the middle of the nineteenth century. Whether you refer to ‘longcases’ or ‘grandfathers’ tends to depend on the sophistication of the person you are addressing. We shall refer only to ‘longcase’ clocks from now on.

The longcase dates from soon after the middle of the seventeenth century. Hitherto, for some sixty years, the most common domestic clock had been the wall ‘lantern clock’ (and it must be remembered that at this time relatively few households boasted clocks at all). Although its exact origin has been much debated, it is safe to say that the longcase originated as a screen and protection for the weights of wall clocks, such as lantern clocks. But from such a humble beginning it rapidly became a totally new piece of furniture, to whose proportions and finish the highest craftsmanship was applied. For perhaps fifty years the longcase clock was the central interest of clockmakers and casemakers in London. Then, although the longcase was not abandoned, the focus shifted more towards equally fine smaller bracket clocks, the second clock of a wealthy household. Meanwhile, the fame of the longcase spread outwards from London and longcases were the principal output of clockmakers and casemakers up and down the country. Thus there was major production of this type of clock for some two hundred years, and thereafter longcases have continued to be made, though no longer in the mainstream.

Mention has been made of ‘clockmakers and casemakers’. These two crafts were, from the first, distinct, although some country clockmakers probably made their own cases. Dials also were a separate industry and in fact it is very difficult to generalize throughout the longcase period as to just how much work was done by the maker, whose name is normally written on the dial. Certainly by late in the eighteenth century whole movements could be bought from specialist houses and dials from others, although even then you often find that the wheels just behind the dial (‘motion wheels’) and levers of the striking mechanism are of a different quality and made locally. Sometimes you find the name of a London maker stamped on the movement of a provincial dial ? particularly after about 1830, when railway transport made an impact.

Hence, although the principal reason for a dial and movement not ‘belonging’ to each other is that someone later has for commercial reasons ‘married’ them, the increasing batch production of parts of the clock in different locations can result in apparent anomalies which are quite ‘genuine’ (for example, a shaft (‘arbor’) being provided for a seconds hand but no seconds hand indication on the dial). Arrangements were also made so that a dial not produced for a particular movement could be quickly and easily fitted to it. Well-built cases to many specified designs could be ordered. Nonetheless, for practical purposes (particularly for defining date and place of origin), the name on the dial is taken to be that of the proprietor clockmaker, the business responsible for clock and case. (Casemakers are hardly ever named anywhere on a clock.)

There is a good chance that you can discover the approximate date and locality of your clock from reference to the classic list by G.H. Baillie, with the second volume by Brian Loomes. This is available in most public libraries. There are subsidiary and localized lists in many of the books on longcase clocks, some of which are listed at the end of this book. Throughout the period there are, for reasons which can only be conjectured, clocks which are unsigned, and then dating them is a matter of assessing styles of workmanship. Book illustrations may be helpful in this respect (see Select Further Reading ? Historical and Reference section). In all work on provenance it is essential to be most wary; very frequently the movement, dial and case of a longcase clock have not always been together, and the clock for various reasons is a hybrid. That need not produce an unattractive clock or stop you from enjoying it, but it does, of course, reduce monetary value and it may well confuse the identifying of date and place. In the books about longcase clocks there are hints on how to detect fraud (now or in the past), but if you suspect your clock is not entirely ‘right’ (as dealers tend to say) it may well be worth seeking professional advice; the major London auction houses are often very helpful, at no or small cost.

Over such a long period, and over such a large geographical area (that is, the British Isles) with slow communication, there is, naturally, no single prototype, and indeed this is often a help in dating. It does, however, also mean that the clock which you wish to restore may differ significantly from examples discussed here. For this reason, some of the main variations which are found are described separately. Other types of casework and mechanism ? and particularly more elaborate forms of striking, chiming and musical-work ? will be discussed and, in many instances, illustrated in the books which appear in the list of further reading. Caution (that is to say, probably specialist advice) is indicated where your clock has more than one bell, or where its dial indications are other than the time plus day-of-the month aperture (or dial) and moon-phases ? these last two being optional extras which may not be present. Twentieth century (including spring-driven) clocks also are outside the scope of this book.

Within this large variety there is a major division of types ? the thirty-hour and the eight-day. These were, from the start, distinct. The thirty-hour clock is not a cheap and late development. You can identify the two types by whether or not the clock is wound with a key.

Fig.1 Eight-day movement (front)

Eight-day clocks are wound by keys passed through holes in the dial and therefore almost always have hinged doors in their tops (‘hoods’). With the exception of a type of striking known as ‘internal countwheel’, which is discussed later, their movements soon evolved into a standard design, shown in Fig. 1.

Thirty-hour clocks are wound by pulling down a weight in the body (‘trunk’) of the case and have no winding keys or key-holes. They have, of course, to be wound every day. As access to the dial is needed only for setting the hands, the hoods may not have opening doors, the dial being reached by sliding the hood forward. At first, however, hoods were raised upwards clear of the dials. Occasional traces of these vertical slides are still found.

Fig. 2 Thirty-hour plated movement (front)

Fig. 3 Thirty-hour plated movement (back)

Fig. 4 Thirty-hour posted movement (back)

In general, thirty-hour clocks are (and always were) simpler and cheaper than eight-day clocks, although they may be capable of just as good time-keeping. There are two distinct types of thirty-hour movement ? the posted (or ‘birdcage’) and the plated. The difference is, on the whole, due to locality rather than date; although the posted movement may seem to look older and cruder, such clocks were in fact made into the nineteenth century, while some of the oldest known thirty-hour clocks have the plated structure. The posted design derived directly from the lantern clock, while the origins of the plated type are more complex. Typical layouts of both types (where there tends to be more variation than in eight-day clocks) are shown in Figs. 2?4.

The earliest longcase clocks had only an hour hand and dials divided into quarters rather than minutes. Eight-day clocks rapidly moved into showing minutes, but single-handed thirty-hour clocks were made throughout the eighteenth century. Thus posted or plated movements may have one hand or two hands with different train arrangements ? within the basic divisions there are many combinations. We shall be looking at a plated two-handed clock in detail, but the variations are outlined for reference in Part IV.

Over the years, the thirty-hour clock has tended to suffer as a ‘poor relation’. The enormous range and variety of these clocks has never been extensively discussed. It may reasonably be held that they are often undervalued, and revaluation might follow on the full-length study which has yet to be made. There is no reason to belittle your clock because it happens to be of thirty-hour rather than eight-day duration, or if it has (whether thirty-hour or eight-day) a ‘painted dial’ rather than a dial of silvered brass. (A painted dial is also known as a ‘white dial’.) Apart from the fact that painted dials were not made before 1770, and so a clock with such a dial is not of the earliest, these different dials should be assessed on their own merits. Remember also that a brass dial is more likely to be unoriginal (because for decades brass dials were preferred to painted and many exchanges or ‘marriages’ were made).

It is worth considering one obvious thing when looking at clocks from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, because...