Glossary

DIFFERENT CLOCK TYPES:

Atmos Clock: Manufactured in Switzerland by the LeCoultre Company. The clock movement is wound mostly by changes of temperature. The principle was invented by the Frenchman Jean-Leon Reutter in the first quarter of the 20th Century. As originally envisioned, the winding system was to use changes in atmospheric pressure, thus the name Atmos. Today’s version uses a change in temperature to wind the mainspring.

Bracket Clock: The name is supposedly derived from the fact that the earliest versions were made to sit on brackets. However the clocks themselves show little evidence that they ever sat on brackets. Instead, these are more correctly called table clocks. They first appeared in England and Holland around the middle of the 17th C and became quite popular as they could be moved from room to room.

Boulle Clock: A mantel, wall, or table clock whose case was veneered in tortoiseshell with brass inlay and date from circa 1650 to 1730. These clocks were produced in the style of the great 17th C French cabinetmaker Charles Boulle.

Cartel Clocks: A Cartel clock is a clock designed to hang directly on the wall. Most often referred to highly ornate, mid 18th Century Rococo examples. These flowing, Curvilinear designs are executed in gilt bronze (aka Ormolu).

Carriage Clock: is a small, spring-driven clock, designed for traveling, developed in the early 19th C in Austria. The case, usually plain or gilt-brass, is rectangular with a carrying handle and often set with glass or more rarely enamel or porcelain panels. A feature of carriage clocks is the platform escapement, sometimes visible through a glazed aperture on the top of the case.

Grandfather Clock: The Grandfather -, Tall Case-, Hall- or Long Case Clock was originally evolved from a Pendulum Clock that hung on the wall, the case being added to enclose the pendulum.

Crystal Regulator: A French Clock housed in a case with glass on all sides. Appearing during the 1880s usually contained a good movement with compensated pendulum and visible escapement.

Cuckoo Clock: A typically pendulum driven clock that strikes the hours using small bellows and pipes that imitate the call of the common Cuckoo in addition to striking a wire gong. The mechanism to produce the cuckoo call was installed in almost every kind of Cuckoo Clock since the middle of the 18th Century and has remained almost without variation until the present.

Gingerbread Clock: Common name given to the very ornate kitchen clocks produced in America between 1890 and 1910.

Lantern Clock: Is a type of weight driven wall clock, shaped like a lantern. They were the first type of clock widely used in private homes. They probably originated before 1500 but only became common after 1600.

Lyre Clock: A clock design that first appeared in France during the last quarter of the 18th C. The entire clock takes the shape of a Lyre. Particularly impressive specimens have the pendulum attached at the top and the bob consist of a circle that surrounds the dial and swings on a short arc from side to side. The bob is usually decorated with faux jewels. This clock was reproduced in France during the second half of the 19th

Music Box/Musical Box: is a 19th C automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder opr disk so as to strike the tuned teeth of a steel comb. They were developed from musical snuff boxes of the 18th C and called carrillons a musique. Some of the more complex boxes also have a tiny drum and small bells, in addition to the metal comb.

Morbier Clock: A French clock produced as early as the mid-18th C around the village of Morbier in the Jura Department. These are 8-day, weight-driven time and strike clocks that are singular in having a vertical strike rack and automatically restrike approximately five minutes after the hour. They are found as tall-case clocks, recognized by their pears-shaped cases, and as a wall clock with very ornate brass sheet around the dial and very long ornate brass pendulum. They are also known as Comtoise Clocks. The earliest example has verge escapements and later examples have anchor escapements.

Portico Clocks/Empire style clocks: sometimes considered the second phase of Neoclassicism, is an early – 19th – Century design movement in architecture. The Arc du Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris, is probably the most famous example of Empire architecture. Portico is a porch that is leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls

Repeater: is a striking clock which could be made to repeat the striking of the hours at the pull of a lever or cord. This feature was used before artificial illumination to tell what time it was at night.

Ships Clock: A lever-escapement movement usually housed in a round brass case with a flange so the clock can be fastened to a bulkhead. Also known as a Marine Clock.

Ships Bell Clock: A wall clock with a lever or balance escapement that was designed to function aboard a ship.

Swingers Clock: Essentially a novelty clock produced in the last decades of the 19th C in France. The traditional pendulum is replaced by a figure on a swing. A modified anchor escapement allowed the figure/pendulum to swing back and forth.