A VERY QUICK HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CLOCK
Clockmaking in America started in Philadelphia, around 1702 when a British clockmaker, Peter Stretch emigrated there. One other craftsman, James Batterson, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1707, shifting to Boston shortly afterwards, followed him out.
Quite quite a lot of German clockmakers arrived round 1750, and their influence on American clocks lasted over 100 years, notably in small particulars equivalent to the usage of Lantern Pinions in their movements.
The Grandfather clock was made in America in small numbers from just after 1700, becoming more popular after 1750. Up to 1810 the actions had been made from brass, often imported from Britain, after this date American mass-produced wood actions have been used, with the occasional brass motion.
One other British clockmaker, Thomas Harland, was working in Norwich, Connecticut in 1773. He had round twenty apprentices hand making clock movements, one in every of these, Daniel Burnap, finally started on his own, and later educated Eli Terry, who later grew to become the primary individual ever to use mass-production for clocks. A specific success was his wooden grandfather clock movement, as a result of low value.
Known in America at the time as eight-day clocks or thirty hour clocks,
New York imported large numbers of complete British clocks. Different cities imported actions and generally brass dials, and native American craftsmen made the wooden cases.
The painted dial for grandfather clocks started to be produced in Britain from 1772, and after the Revolutionary Warfare these dials have been exported to America. Ten years later American artists started producing painted dials. Two of the very best, Spencer Nolan and Samuel Curtis went into partnership, Nolan and Curtis turned the first major American painted dial producers, primarily based in Boston, Mass.
One other well-known artist was William Jones of Philadelphia, he labored from 1825 to round 1845, when the marketplace for grandfather clocks collapsed, because of the large numbers of much cheaper shelf and wall clocks now being made and sold everywhere in the country. This occurred in Britain too, across the similar time and for a similar cause, imports of low-value American and German clocks and a change in style.
Two main components influenced the production of clocks in America, in Britain clocks of every type fairly happily existed alongside each other for a few years, but in America after the Revolutionary Warfare the new spirit of free-enterprise and a way of personal freedom meant that each new clock sort to come alongside drove the older models out of use, in order that they stopped being made very quickly, in favour of the newest model.
The other main factor affecting the clock commerce was that carbon steel was unknown in America earlier than about 1850, so there were no clock springs out there and weights had for use, which of course had a significant have an effect on on clock design. A few makers used brass springs for a time, and Joseph Ives developed the "wagon spring" clock, utilizing a small version of the same springs used on carts and carriages for suspension.
Both the brass spring and wagon spring driven clocks at the moment are rare, and keenly wanted by collectors in the present day.
In 1810 Eli Terry bought his clock factory to Seth Thomas and Silas Hoadley, and began to develop a brand new shelf clock. This clock could be full with a case, Terry realised he might make a revenue on both motion and case, and a completed clock could be bought all over America.
Shopping for land and a manufacturing unit building in Plymouth, Conn. In Dec 1812, his new clock was in manufacturing by 1815. This clock was concerning the size of a Grandfather clock hood, and had an identical look with swan-neck pediments on high (usually called a scroll-high) and three brass finials mounted on square blocks. Two high quality columns ran vertically on each side of the door. These features gave the clock its name, "Pillar and Scroll Clock."
Eli Terry employed Chauncey Jerome in his new factory for a number of years, and then he left round 1816 to set up a small store for himself. Terry also had an settlement with Seth Thomas, nonetheless in the old factory purchased from Terry, to make these new clocks on fee of a small royalty. Terry later claimed he never obtained any payments from Thomas, and they had a grand falling out over patent infringements.
The pillar and scroll clock was the first clock ever to be mass-produced, both Eli Terry and Seth Thomas produced round 12,000 clocks each in 1825. The clock sold well proper through the 1820’s however by 1832 production ceased as new case kinds appeared.
Three of the giants of early clockmaking in America, Seth Thomas, Eli Terry, and Chauncey Jerome all knew one another properly, lived close collectively, and worked together incessantly, particularly when growing equipment for mass-producing clocks.
There then adopted an enormous variety of case types, nonetheless the same movement inside, though by 1840 the wooden movement had stopped getting used for probably the most part.
The "half column and splat" clock appeared about 1831, with a strong fuss-free case that did not injury in transit as simply as the delicate pillar and scroll clock, it quickly replaced the previous mannequin.
There have been virtually as many clockmakers as case styles, to call them all is outdoors the scope of a brief history, (there were16 clock factories just in Bristol) but it is price mentioning the seven main clock manufacturing
companies who grew over time, all in Connecticut:-
Seth Thomas, New Haven, Ingraham, Ansonia, Waterbury, Gilbert, and Welch/Periods. The Ansonia Clock Firm alone had forty five totally different fashions and 14 completely different actions accessible in 1870 - - - -
I'll finish by listing just a few of the models obtainable from 1810 to 1910: -
Pillar and scroll, column and splat, the banjo clock, shelf clock, beehive clock, steeple clock, sharp gothic, four column steeple, the Ogee, the double candlestick, cottage clock, the Venetian, the gingerbread, the drop-dial wall clock, the octagon drop-dial, the regulator, the Waterbury Augusta, and on and on - - - - - -
Though mass-produced, many of those clocks are stunning artistic endeavors, and well price contemplating gathering, most of them are fairly priced due to the sheer numbers made and bought in America and Europe.
This article, with photographs, might be seen on web page 5 of my web site on the tackle below.
Andrew.
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