The Longcase Clock Reference Book

Now available again, but in a completely revised edition with new illustrations and a substantially rewritten text. This is the classic work of reference on the subject.

Longcase clocks were invidually hand-made during the golden age of change that took place between the late seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. Longcase clocks with their seventeenth century clock-making technology were innovative and incorporated an accurate pendulum clock within an attractive piece of domestic furnishing. This invaluable book is essential reading for all those who own and collect longcase clocks as well as clock repairers, horologists and conservationists. The authors provide detailed information about how longcase clocks work and how they are made. They also cover the theory and the 'best practice' practical steps that are required in longcase clock maintenance, restoration and conservation. The book outlines the history and horological development of longcase clocks; describes how longcase clocks can be dated; considers materials, tools and equipment; examines the movement and the associated simple, and more difficult, workshop procedures; covers maintenance and effective repairs; explains the more difficult woodwork procedures. Superbly illustrated with 300 colour photographs. Nigel Barnes and Austin Jordan provide advice and guidance in the field of antique horology and regularly run weekend courses.

This book provides a concise survey of the devleopment of the longcase clock in Britain. It explains how time is measured, how a pendulum regulates a clock and what keeps it swinging. The manufacture and characteristics of clock dials, hands and cases are described in a manner designed to help the reader identify and date clocks. The book concludes with useful advice on the care of clocks, transporting them, and buying and selling.

This book is not meant to be a wonderful literary work of art or a systematic manual on clock building but hopefully a helpful introduction to anybody thinking about making a longcase clock with an old or new movement and dial. The author takes a short look at the history of clock making, clock construction and most importantly timber conversion. Also revealing why he converts his timber the way he does. Discussing the basic tool kit you need to start making clock cases and how to finish for anybody just starting. Also incorporated in the book is a list of 4,500 English & European Clock Makers to help in any research you may have to do. You will also find within the book a complete basic plan and a cutting list for a simple provincial style oak case, to house a late 17th Century, 30-hour movement with a 10-inch dial

This survey of the rise and decline of English watchmaking fills a gap in the historiography of British industry. Clerkenwell in London was supplied with 'rough movements' from Prescot, 200 miles away in Lancashire. Smaller watchmaking hubs later emerged in Coventry, Liverpool, and Birmingham. The English industry led European watchmaking in the late eighteenth century in output, and its lucrative export markets extended to the Ottoman Empire and China. It also made marine chronometers, the most complex of hand-crafted pre-industrial mechanisms, crucially important to the later hegemony of Britain’s navy and merchant marine. Although Britain was the 'workshop of the world', its watchmaking industry declined. Why? First, because cheap Swiss watches were smuggled into British markets. Later, in the era of Free Trade, they were joined by machine-made watches from factories in America, enabled by the successful application to watch production of the 'American system' in Waltham, Massachusetts after 1858. The Swiss watch industry adapted itself appropriately, expanded, and reasserted its lead in the world’s markets. English watchmaking did not: its trajectory foreshadowed and was later followed by other once-prominent British industries. Clerkenwell retained its pre-industrial production methods. Other modernization attempts in Britain had limited success or failed.