CHAPTER XI
CLOCKS
UNTIL about 1600, clocks were made chiefly for public buildings or for the very wealthy, who only could afford to own them; but with the seventeenth century began the manufacture of clocks for ordinary use; these clocks were of brass, and were known as chamber clocks. The earliest form in which they were made was what is now called the “birdcage” or “lantern” clock. Inventories in this country from 1638 to 1700 speak of clocks with valuations varying from £2 to £20, and occasionally a “brass clock” is specified. This must refer, as some of the others may also have done, to the lantern clock.
Illus. 339.—Lantern
or Bird-cage Clock,
First Half of
Seventeenth Century.
The lantern clock in Illustration [339] is owned by William Meggatt, Esq., of Wethersfield. The illustration shows the form of the clock, from which it naturally derived the names “lantern” and “birdcage.” The clock is set upon a bracket, and the weights hang upon cords or chains passing through openings in the shelf; the pendulum also swings through a slit in the shelf.
The dial projects beyond the frame of the clock, and is six inches in diameter, and there is but one hand. The dome at the top is partially concealed by the frets above the body of the clock. Different clock-makers had frets of their own, and the design of the fret is often a guide for determining the date of such clocks. The one upon the clock in Illustration [339] is what was called the “heraldic fret” from the small escutcheon in the centre, and it was used upon clocks made from 1600 to 1640. The fret with crossed dolphins was in use from 1650, and is the pattern of fret most frequently found upon these clocks. The long pendulum must have been a later substitution, for it was not commonly used until 1680, clocks up to the time of its invention having the short or “bob” pendulum. There is no maker’s name upon this clock.