Lantern Clock - Style Characteristics

Style Characteristics

Lantern clocks were made almost entirely of brass, whereas most earlier clocks had been constructed from iron and wood. Typical lantern clocks comprised a square case on ball or urn feet, a large circular dial (with a chapter ring extending beyond the width of the case on early examples), a single hour hand, and a large bell and finial. The clocks usually had ornate pierced fretwork on top of the frame.

The main style characteristics of English lantern clocks are similar to its Continental relatives: a wall clock with square bottom and top plates surmounted by a large bell, four corner pillars, a series of vertical plates positioned behind each other and a 30-hour movement with one or more weights. At the start of the 17th century the style gradually evolved to a standard to which all clockmakers more or less complied. The guild supervised the clockmakers who were compelled to work within a prescribed method. Suppliers to the clockmakers' trade contributed to this general style as well. For example the brass founders supplied stylistically identical clock posts to several clock makers. In contrast to the Dutch variants, such as stool clocks, English lantern clocks were entirely made of metal (brass and steel).

Lantern clocks were originally weight driven: usually one weight for time keeping and a second for striking. A few later lantern-style clocks were constructed with spring mechanisms, and many surviving examples of the original weight-driven type have been converted to spring or pendulum mechanisms.