A Gentler Time

Grandfather clocks costly but popular nostalgia

By Ed Severson
The Arizona Daily Star
November 13th, 1998

 

Time is money.
$700, $1,000, $3,000
Up to $15,000 or more.In this case, we’re talking about the time told by grandfather clocks.
This holiday season, clock merchants expect that, as usual, nostalgic Tucsonans will come down with serious cases of grandfather-clock fever.
Some of the clocks available for purchase bear price tags that would not be out of place on a major appliance, a Caribbean cruise or a chunk of desert acreage.
These prices, it should be pointed out, are for clocks whose accuracy can, in most cases, be equaled by that of a $20 digital watch.
Hey, doesn’t matter.
Timekeeping, in its strictest sense, is beside the point.
Grandfather clock customers shell out big bucks for what might be termed tranquil timekeeping.
“When it chimes at night, it has a soothing sound to me,” said Tucsonan Yvette Wingfield, who gave herself a grandfather clock as a birthday present last September.
“It’s hard to explain to people, but it’s more than just a clock.”
Tucsonan Lori Elrod said her family’s grandfather clock adds a peacefulness to their home.
“I look forward to hearing it, and I miss it if we forget to wind it,” she said.
“It’s like part of the family.”
Those who sell them have learned than an individual grandfather-clock sale can be years in the making.
“I hear almost every customer say that their grandmother had one, and they’ve always wanted one,” said Rhonda Reis, owner of Ethan Allen Home Interiors, 5621 N. Oracle Road.
The store’s selection of grandfather clocks includes a $2,700 Mission-style number that stands slightly above 6 ½ feet high.
With its solid oak cabinet, antique copper-finished weights, triple-chime and optional hand-leaded glass door panel, it features typical grandfather-clock size, sound and reassurance that, yes, indeed, you can go home again.
In a Tucson hallway or living room, its presence can summon up a golden moment of the good old days.
These floor clocks, which have been around since the 17th century, have been called “coffin clocks,” “tall-case clocks” and “long-case clocks.”
Usually standing 6 feet or more, they picked up the “grandfather clock” moniker in 1876 from a popular song, “My Grandfather’s Clock.”
Out at his Alpine Clock Shop, 5753 E. Broadway, owner Jim Hamilton, pointed out the looks count.
“People come in, look around and say, ‘That’s the one I go for,’” Hamilton said, surveying his huge selection of grandfather clocks.
He gestured toward the gleaming cherry-, mahogany- and oak-cased clocks – all made by Sligh, a Michigan manufacturer – which ranged from $1,000 to $2,500.
Every now and then, one of the full-throated clocks noted the time’s passage with its melodious chime.
Among the features that add to a grandfather clock’s price are more ornate cabinets, better-sounding chimes and lunar dials, which track the phases of the moon.
“They (grandfather clocks) are the big family gift of the season,” said Barbara Starks, who guys gifts and decorative accessories for all eight American Home Furnishing outlets.
The Tucson stores carry a selection of Ridgeway and Howard Miller grandfather clocks ranging from $700 to #1,600.
She said that basic clocks are powered by a chain-driven mechanism. In this type, the free end of a chain is pulled down to raise the weights into a fully wound position.
In the more-expensive, cable-driven clocks, a key is inserted in the clock’s dial to raise the weights.
Martha Layne stood among a small forest of grandfather clocks in the jewel-box-sized showroom of Bert Layne Jewelers and Clocks, 5618 E. Broadway Blvd.
The Howard Miller grandfather clocks that the store carries start at about $900 and go up to about $9,000.
In addition, it usually has one or two antique grandfather clocks. One such antique, a 9-foot-high Waltham, is $17,000.
“The high line in grandfather clocks will always be tubular bells,” Layne said, opening the door of the store’s most-expensive Howard Miller, an almost-$9,000 Madison II.
She demonstrated one of its three chimes, which were produced by little hammers striking its nine long, tubular bells.
“You get an orchestra sound from the tubes,” she said.
“Even though clocks may look identical, each one has its own unique sound,” she said.

Genuine old-timers
Most grandfather clocks that will be sold in Tucson this holiday season will be brand-new.
For some clock lovers, only and antique will do.
They love the nicks, scratches and worn spots on grandfather clocks, much as a child loves the wrinkles on a grandparent’s face.
At The Antique Clockworks, 3146 N. First Ave., Jane Wallis pointed to a couple of small holes in the mahogany cabinet of a Scottish grandfather clock.
Priced at $4,800, the 1840s Scottish grandfather clock was built by a Mr. Herron of Blythe, Northumberland.
“This has a pinched waist and is top-heavy,” explained Wallis who, along with her husband, Joe, owns the shop.
“They basically tied this to the wall.”
Those holes are among the beloved eccentricities that set this 8-foot clock apart from all others.
Its dial bears the faded painting of sheep in a Scottish country scene.
“They got women in the villages to paint the clocks,” Wallis said. “They usually painted what was in the area where they were.”
She slid the hood off another grandfather clock to expose the thick brass of the works inside.
“Today clocks aren’t built to last the way they were,” Wallis said.
At Bert Layne Jewelers and Clocks, 5618 E. Broadway, Martha Layne admired a near-monumental 9-foot, circa 1913-15 Waltham grandfather clock.
Housed in an elaborately carved Honduran mahogany cabinet, the $17,000, nine-tubular-bell clock featured a moon face and three chimes.
Such clocks can make it feel as if one is standing in the presence of the supreme example of the clockmaker’s art.
Not So.
For antique-clock lovers, there is always another clock, with its own very personal history, its own mechanical delights, its own unique cabinetry, that can capture their heart.
“Mr. Layne used to repair a clock for a bank in Montgomery, Ala,” said Martha Layne.
“It had 12 different chimes on it, and they had a real hard time finding someone who knew all the chimes.”
History rings with those chimes
When you fork over bucks for a grandfather clock, one of the big extras you pay for is
well-aged sound.
Read “chimes.”
High-end clocks usually have three sets of chimes, which imitate the melodies of famous old bell towers.
The best-known chimes of all are the Westminster, the melody of the Victoria Clock Tower of England’s Houses of Parliament.

Some believe the chimes relay this simple prayer:
 “Lord through this hour, thou our guide, by Thy power foot shall slide.”

Everybody has heard the Westminster chimes, either in a movie, on the radio or on TV.
The mere sound of those chimes in a Tucson living room can conjure up a rolling fog, the clatter of carriage wheels on cobblestones and the sudden whistle of a London bobby.
Far less familiar, the Whittington chimes have a rags-to-riches tale behind them.
Originally they rang in the church of St. Mary le Bow in London.
According to an old story, an abused orphan named Dick Whittington was running away from his employer when he heard the chimes.
He thought they were telling him, “Turn again, Dick Whittington, Thrice Lord Mayor of Londontown.”
Whittington did, in fact, grow up to become lord mayor.
The St. Michael’s Chimes belong in America.
Although the bells were originally case in London, they were installed in the St. Michael’s Church steeple in Charleston, SC, in 1764.
During the Revolutionary War, the British carried them to England. Later, a Charleston merchant bought them in England and sent them back to America.
Which is one of the differences between a grandfather clock and perfectly serviceable, inexpensive digital.
You get a little history with it.

Source: American Home Furnishings.

Photo Caption and credit:

Photo by Bruce McClelland, The Arizona Daily Star

Martha Layne of Bert Layne Jewelers, where grandfather clocks start at about $900 and approach $17,000