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 required 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 clock work 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, so that friction is reduced to the absolute minimum.
By now it must be apparent that even our 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 or dealer 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 on 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 alas 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:-
1. To return your clock in perfect working order.
2. To preserve the integrity of the item, including evidence where possible of its history and manufacture.
3. To try to use methods which are reversible and materials that can be removed without damage to the item itself.
4. Finally to record all stages of his work.
An article of this length can obviously only scratch the surface of what is in fact a huge subject, but hopefully the reader will have gained a little understanding of why his much loved clock occasionally needs a little bit of loving care.
If you have an unusual or interesting clock that you would like to know more about I would be happy to inspect it.
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!”
Small, compact, attractive and practical, the carriage clock has by dint of its ability to blend harmoniously into almost any domestic setting, probably captured the imagination of the general public more so than any other form of timepiece.
By definition a “carriage clock” is a timepiece either plain and simple, or with one or more complications designed in such a way that it can be used on a journey, the only restriction governing its construction being that it must be controlled by a balance wheel. Owners of clocks that contain any sort of pendulum will immediately understand that they are very definitely not portable, and any attempt to “take them on a journey” will almost certainly have dire consequences.
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.
There is little doubt that the first French carriage clock bearing any resemblance to 
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.
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.
Carriage clock sizes fall with a charming lack of precision under three main headings: ‘Mignonnettes’ or “little darlings” cover all clocks under 4¼” high with the handle raised. ‘Full Size’, between 5½” and 9”, and ‘Giant’, everything over 9”. The vast majority of the clocks found today fall somewhere in the middle of the ‘Full Size’ range, and in case style will be either ‘Obis’ or ‘Corniche’. ‘Giants’ are relatively rare and will probably contain several complications, making them not only desirable, but expensive.
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 !
