The Old Furniture Book, with a Sketch of Past Days and WaysMoore, N. Hudson
History
The Old Furniture Book, with a Sketch of Past Days and Ways
Moore, N. Hudson
Furniture
Some of the most distinguishing marks on these clocks are the hour
circles. Before the minute hand came into use the double circles seen
in the mantle clocks were in use. Between them the hour is divided into
quarters, the half hour being shown by a longer stroke, or an ornament
like a fleur-de-lys. When the minute hand came into use, besides the
double circle containing the numerals denoting the hours, and the
smaller figures showing the minutes, there were on the outer edge marks
or divisions to denote the quarter hours, the device being a cross or
a dagger. The dial faces were beautifully embellished with engraving,
those of the William III. and Queen Anne periods being very rich. Not
only were the faces brass, but there were to be found silvered faces
also, ornamented with ormolu mounts of figures and scrolls in brass.
All the space on the dial was utilized; on the extreme edge a border
of leaves, or herring-bone pattern was placed, and the whole interior
of the hour-ring was engraved or etched with flowers, scrolls, or set
patterns, and even the winding-holes had their set of circles around
each.
Of the seventeenth-century clocks the earliest had their makers' names
put into Latin and engraved straight across the bottom of the dial,
and quite concealed when the wooden hood of the case was in place.
Later it was engraved on the lower half of the circle between the
figures seven and five. These two styles were only in use very early,
for about 1750 name-plates were first used, and then makers used their
own taste in the matter, sometimes omitting the name entirely and
substituting some motto like "Tempus Fugit" "Tempus edax rerum", and
even such lengthy mottoes as the following;
"Slow comes the hour; its passing speed how great;
Waiting to seize it,--vigilantly wait!"
Edward East was another well-known early English maker, and some clocks
in splendid cases came from his hand by 1690 and earlier.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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