The English Lantern Clock
Brass, weight-driven and topped with a bell, the lantern clock was the first clock many English households ever owned.
A clock for the middle-class home
Before lantern clocks, most English people told the time by sundials and by the tower clocks of their local churches, notes the Hammond-Harwood House museum in Annapolis, Maryland. The lantern clock brought a mechanical timekeeper indoors.
The form came from continental Europe. The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) says lantern clocks were first made in England in the 1620s. Hammond-Harwood House links their spread to French Huguenot craftsmen who settled in England early in the 17th century, and Braintree Museum says the first English examples are thought to have been made in London by Huguenots. Their price put them within reach of a rising middle class.
London makers led the way. William Bowyer, whose lantern clock of about 1630 is in the British Museum, is recorded as a founder of the Clockmakers' Company, though the museum's catalogue notes that sources date that founding to 1630 or 1632. Production soon spread to country towns: the V&A holds a late 17th-century example by William Goodwin of Stowmarket in Suffolk, and Braintree Museum has one by Joseph Fordham of Braintree, Essex.
Museum records give a glimpse of these early craftsmen's careers. The British Museum's notes on Bowyer trace him from 1621 to 1653. John Pennocke, who signed a lantern clock as working within Bishopsgate in London, is recorded there by 1630, joined the Clockmakers' Company in 1638 and is last mentioned in 1642.
See also: the story of clocks from sundials onward on OnlineClock.app.
Why are they called lantern clocks?
Nobody is completely sure. The V&A says the name probably comes from the clock's resemblance to a portable domestic lantern, with its four corner pillars and open top, but it may also be a corruption of latten, an old word for brass.
Hammond-Harwood House prefers the latten explanation. With museums split, the fairest summary is that the lantern-shape theory is the more common one and the brass theory remains a real possibility.
How a lantern clock is built
A lantern clock is essentially a brass box: four pillars at the corners, with side panels enclosing the wheels. Brass was preferred, the V&A explains, because it was easier to work than steel and did not rust.
Hammond-Harwood House points out that the four pillars echo the columns of ancient Greece, and its own example is topped with a dolphin design. The clocks were compact: the British Museum's Bowyer clock is just 43.9 centimeters tall and under 15 centimeters wide and deep.
On top sits a bell. Braintree Museum describes a bell set into the top that strikes the hour. Some clocks also had an alarm: Bowyer's clock has hour striking plus a small weight-driven alarm fixed to the back plate.
Lantern clocks were made to hang on a wall, with weights dangling beneath on ropes or chains. On Braintree Museum's 30-hour example, the weights had to be pulled up every day.
See also: the difference between striking and chiming clocks on OnlineClock.app.
How long did one run?
Running time varied a lot. Horological historian John Robey, writing in the Antiquarian Horological Society's journal in 2010, says early balance-wheel lantern clocks ran for only about twelve hours between windings. Some were treated as sun-chasers, reset regularly against a sundial.
Doubling up the ropes, with extra pulleys for the weights and counterweights, could stretch that to around 24 hours. Later clocks such as Braintree Museum's, dated to about 1715, are described as 30-hour clocks.
Inside the movement
Robey describes cruciform front and back bars that are specific to English clocks and not found on Continental ones. Decorative pierced frets normally sat at the top, and on balance-wheel clocks the striking hammer was on the right.
Two trains of wheels sit one behind the other. In the V&A's clock by William Goodwin, the going train, which keeps time, is at the front with an anchor escapement, and a locking-plate striking train, which counts out the hours, is at the back. The museum notes that one of its counting parts has been renewed, a reminder that most old clocks have had centuries of repairs.
Museum catalogues can be remarkably precise. The British Museum's entry for the Bowyer clock records a great wheel turning once an hour and 2,736 beats per hour from its balance. The museum's clock by John Pennocke, converted to a long pendulum, beats 3,888 times an hour.
One hand, and the arrival of the pendulum
Early lantern clocks were regulated by a balance wheel and verge escapement. Braintree Museum notes that without a pendulum their accuracy was limited and they had no seconds hand. The Bowyer clock has a single steel hand, with small stars on the chapter ring marking the half hours.
Everything changed after the pendulum clock arrived in the 1650s. Hammond-Harwood House says lantern clocks made after 1656 sometimes had a pendulum and a minute hand, though many makers kept the single hand out of tradition.
Many older clocks were converted. Pennocke's London lantern clock began with a balance and verge and now has an anchor escapement and a pendulum about 88 centimeters long. Its date is itself uncertain: the British Museum's records give 1625 to 1635 in one field and about 1640 in the curator's entry.
Robey adds two warnings for collectors. Few lantern clocks survive with their original balance, because many were converted first to a verge with a short pendulum and then to an anchor with a long one. And balance-wheel clocks were still being made in the provinces into the 1680s, so a balance alone does not prove a clock predates the pendulum.
Decline and survival
Lantern clocks gradually gave way to more accurate timekeepers, but sources differ on when. Hammond-Harwood House says they fell out of popularity in urban areas by the latter half of the 17th century. The V&A says they remained a popular domestic form until the late 18th century, and Braintree Museum puts their decline in the early 1800s. The gap probably reflects city buyers moving on long before country ones.
Today they are prized by collectors and museums. Hammond-Harwood House's example, dated to about 1650, is the oldest object in its collection and has hung in the mansion's entryway since it was donated in 1941.
Not every lantern clock fits the textbook. Robey has described an unsigned English example with top and bottom plates of wrought iron rather than brass, and cast-brass corner pillars each shaped as a male figure. He thinks it was made by an inexperienced provincial maker some time before 1660.
Questions people ask
How old are lantern clocks?
The V&A says they were first made in England in the 1620s. The British Museum holds a London example by William Bowyer dated to about 1630.
Why do lantern clocks have only one hand?
Early lantern clocks used a balance wheel and verge escapement that were not accurate enough to make a minute hand worthwhile. After the pendulum arrived in 1656, some gained minute hands, but many makers kept the single hand out of tradition.
How often does a lantern clock need winding?
Early balance-wheel lantern clocks often ran for only about twelve hours, according to John Robey, while later 30-hour examples needed their weights pulled up once a day.
Where does the name lantern clock come from?
Probably from its lantern-like shape, though the V&A notes it may come from latten, an old word for brass. Museums disagree.