Pendulum of Mayfair
King House,51 Maddox Street,
London W1S 2PH
Telephone:
+44 (0) 207 629 6606Fax:
+44 (0) 207 629 6616Email:
Pendulumclocks@aol.comCoppelia Antiques
Holford Lodge,Plumley Moor Road,
Plumley,
Cheshire
WA16 9RS
Telephone:
+44 (0) 1565 722197Fax:
+44 (0) 1565 722744
Care & Setting Up Instructions for a Longcase Clock
CARE & SETTING UP INSTRUCTIONS OF A LONGCASE CLOCK
Congratulations on your purchase of a Longcase clock from Pendulum of Mayfair Ltd / Coppelia Antiques. Given proper care and conditions your Longcase clock should give many years reliable service.
Proper Care After Set-up
1) Winding:
‘30Hr’clocks are generally wound with a rope or chain. This should be done once per day.
‘8 Day’ clocks may either have one weight (typically regulator clocks) or two/three weights. All weights are to be wound by inserting the correct size of key on to the winding arbour. Your clock should arrive unwound, so on winding, the lines should follow the grooves in the barrel (if applicable) ‘8-day’ clocks are usually wound clockwise
‘Month’ duration clocks typically as above but since these clocks have an extra wheel in the train they are generally wound anti-clockwise.
2) Time:
When setting the time never move the hands backwards. If you move the clock hands backwards past a striking section you may cause damage to the movement. Always let the clock strike each hour/quarter etc when setting the time. It is also a good idea to wind the clock prior to setting the time and starting the clock.
3) Calendar:
As the clocks allow for 31 days per month, when there is less than 31 days, you need to adjust the calendar. Depending on the sort of calendar of your clock, this can be done from the front (hand variety) or the rear (square or lunette variety). The calendar disc on the latter sort is attached to the back of the dial. You can move the square or lunette type from the front but you may leave finger prints to the dial, that will leave a mark over time. If the calendar does not want to move, wait for a few hours and try again, it may be in mesh. Generally the calendar can be moved by hand between 3 and 5pm each day.
4) Regulation:
If you notice a day after set-up the clock is running fast by a few minutes, the only thing that controls the timekeeping is the pendulum. (assuming the minute hand is not loose) Stop the clock by grabbing the pendulum and move the nut on bottom of the pendulum anti-clockwise, in effect lengthening the pendulum. Generally 1 turn either way would make the clock gain/lose 1 minute per day. Up= Faster, Down = Slower.
5) Striking:
If your clock is count wheel strike, occasionally the clocks strike may go out of sequence. This can happen if the clock has been left to run out. There is a lever on the movement which you can lift to adjust this. Alternatively if the clock is striking 4 but pointing to three and the time is 3.10 by the clock, move the clock hands past four quickly and on to five before the clock has finished striking five. The clock will now be in sequence again, striking five and pointing to five.
HUMIDITY
You should always keep your clock in R.H. 40-65%. Never keep your clock in dry or damp conditions. As a result of central heating over the last 20 years more damage has been done to antiques than at any time in the previous 300 years. Always check your humidity level. It is recommended in dry conditions you purchase a Humidifier or in damp conditions you purchase a DE-Humidifier.
WAXING
Always use a Beeswax polish every few years, never use spray polishes on antiques.
OILING
You should oil your clock movement every year or so with a specialist clock oil. This can be applied with an artists brush. Oil needs to be applied to the pivot holes on the front plate and backplate. (I.e. where the pinions of the wheels go through front and backplate) It is also advisable to oil the pallets and the pulleys that the weights hang on. You do not need to oil any of the gears in the movement. A few drops of oil should oil an entire movement, do not over oil as this will attract dust and cause wear.
SETTING UP YOUR LONGCASE CLOCK ON DELIVERY
Parts of a Longcase Clock:
1) Trunk
2) Hood
3) One / Two / or Three Weights
4) Pendulum
5) Movement
Tools Required to install your Longcase Clock and Fix it to a Wall
1) Drill
2)Wood baton (8inch * 2inch * thickness of skirting (generally 1inch thick)
3) Screwdriver and screw to screw clock into baton
4) 4/5 thin wooden packing blocks to straighten clock and make it lean against the wall
5) Raw plug and screw to fix baton to wall
Introduction
It is always advisable to fix your clock to the wall. If this is not done then apart from the risk of the clock being knocked over, sometimes if the clock is not firm the clock may stop when the weights are level with the pendulum, as the clock rocks slightly. You can avoid the fixing to the wall by just packing up the front feet up and thus throwing the clocks weight to the wall, which is done when you screw the clock to the wall in any case, but I would recommend fixing. The process outlined below appears very difficult but it is easily carried out by most people. If you do not wish to undertake this process, you can ask any joiner to do this for you. Let them have our instructions if they are unsure of the process.
The first step after unpacking the boxes that the clock is packed in, is to check the clock for any damage in transport and if so , inform your shipper. Hopefully this is not the case and you can continue with the fixing of your clock. Find the most suitable place you would like the clock to be and with the use of the thin packing blocks under the clocks front feet, place the trunk of the clock against the wall in this position.
The second step requires some assistance from a willing family member. Now you have set the trunk straight against the wall, (by eye is fine) whilst one person takes the movement and places it on the cheeks of the case, the other person brings the pendulum. Do not leave the movement unattended on the cheeks, keep your hand holding the clock until at least the pendulum is connected. Now thread the pendulum up though the crutch (the slot to the rear of the movement) and finally onto the back-cock of the movement.
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Generally it is now safe, if the movement is far back on the cheeks, to let go of the movement now, but do so carefully, making sure the movement does not overbalance.
At this stage put the hood onto the trunk and with your hands under the bottom of the seatboard lever the movement into the correct position in the mask, making sure the hood is still firmly back. The dial now should be fitting the mask evenly on both sides. At this stage you can carefully take the hood off and if applicable screw the movement down into the cheeks and so it it stable and in the correct position. This is an optional stage of the process.
Now comes the time for fixing the clock to the wall or if you do not wish to do this, all you need to do is hang the weights on the clock and follow the latter stages of the process.
Mark the wall through an existing central hole in the clocks backboard (if there is one about chest height as you open the trunk door) If not drill a small hole through the clocks backboard at this point and mark. Temporarily at this height and to one side of the clock put the baton you are going to use just behind the clock, leave it there sticking out from one side of the clock for the moment while you check the pendulum is free and not touching the backboard. You have now checked the baton is of the correct thickness. If the pendulum is still touching the back of the clock while the baton is temporarily behind the clock and the movement is correct in the mask. (not been pushed back) use a slightly thicker baton and recheck.
Now you are happy with the thickness of the baton, mark the position of where the clock is standing and move the clock to one side. (two people can lift the complete clock to one side or alternatively dismantle in the reverse order you set up. Make sure you know exactly where the clock was positioned. To one side of the mark you have on the wall, make sure you now test the wall so that there is no problem with drilling here. (no cables etc behind) Drill the hole to one side of the mark you have made to the correct length of your raw plug. Attach raw plug and screw baton to wall. Re-assemble clock in exactly the original place with exactly the correct number of packing pieces under the front feet. Screw through the hole in the clock’s backboard into the wood baton now fixed to the wall. Your clock is now secure.
You can now attach the clock weights and wind the clock. The clock should come to you unwound so on winding the lines should follow the grooves in the barrel (if present)
Now you can swing the pendulum and listen to the tick. The clock should tick evenly, I.e. tick, tock. Not tick, tooooooock. If the clock is straight and you are happy with this you need to adjust the beat. You will need to bend the crutch away from the sound of the long tock. If the clock is not in beat even if all the hands of the clock are free and not touching the dial or each other, the clock will stop within a few minutes. If the clock is in beat though and the clock stops at five past one for instance the hands may be touching, gently ease them away from each other.
Now your clock is set-up you can now sit back and relax.
If you want to set the clock up in a corner position, it is basically the same process as above but you will need a i-shaped backed. The baton will be on the wall and you will have a baton on the back of the clock with a adjoining piece of wood connecting the two. The above process may seem complicated but it really is not and should take no more than 20 minutes for a practical person or 45/50 minutes for fitting in a corner.
SET-UP SUMMARY SHEET
1) Decide where you want clock and fit a wooden baton to wall, similar thickness to skirting.
2) Place case in front of this and fix it to the piece of wood.
3) Place movement in case and get someone else to hang pendulum on whilst you steady movement.
4) Put the hood on and then slide you hand under seatboard to position in the dial in the mask correctly
5) Remove hood and attach weights correctly to pulleys.
6) Carefully wind up clock making sure the lines are not twisted and winding evenly on barrels
7) Wind the clock to a point where the lines fill the barrel, do not over wind. Leave a gap of about 2inch between the underneath of the seatboard and the pulley.
8) Swing the pendulum gently and listen to see if the clock is in beat. Tick - Tock. If the sound is correct, set-up is complete, if not adjust beat of clock by bending crutch away from the sound of the long tock.
9) If the timekeeping is fast, adjust by lowering pendulum rating nut on bottom of pendulum. Roughly one turn down will make the clock go slower by one minute per day and vice versa
10) Always wind the weights before moving the hands of the clock.
Recent Articles
Cheshire Life - July 2005
Horological Life
Man who knows the value of time
ROY Clements antique clock business began as a hobby more than 30 years ago but now draws customers from all over the world, including members of the Royal Family. As a partner in his company Coppelia Antiques, he employs 11 people at the Cheshire workshop and the company's prestigious shop in London's Mayfair.
Roy, 65, was a senior engineer jetting all around the world with Pilkingtons until he took a six month holiday after building the Viking cycle factory for the British Government in Northern Ireland. "I used to restore my own clocks and those of other dealers, as a hobby, and my wife Valerie said why not do clocks full-time?" Roy explains. "After giving up a high profile job, company car and pension we have not looked back."
His firm, Coppelia Antiques has been based in Plumley near Knutsford since 1974. In 1995 they approached the Queen's jewellers, Aspreys (now Asprey-Garrards), offering to take over their antique clock business, RA Lee. In its place Roy set up a new London company, Pendulum of Mayfair, and bought the former Fred Perry tennis shop in Maddox Street, off New Bond Street. Two of Roys three sons, Duncan and Daniel, are involved in the business, which came from a family fascination with clocks. My father was a very practical man, from an early age he let me look inside the clock mechanisms to see what made them tick, says Roy. I had a five year apprenticeship with the UK Atomic Energy Authority using all different machine tools, lathes and other mechanical devices, so I am part of the engineering world. Roy, a chartered engineer, has a boyish enthusiasm for the timepieces lovingly restored at the Plumley workshop, and is eager to explain the history and influence of British clock making. In the 18th century the best craftsmen were usually found in port cities such as Liverpool, Edinburgh, Bristol and Hull where mahogany could be found on the quaysides, carried as ballast in ships bringing cotton in exchange for slaves. Each city had a distinctive style of clock but all this variety came to an end in the first decade of the 19th century, with the introduction of mass produced clock faces and movements(mechanisms) in Birmingham. I stop at 1810, says Roy, consultant clocks editor of Millers Antiques Price Guide. He has amassed one of the finest collections of 18th century clocks in the world. But never again will it be possible to collect the clocks I've got, he says, mourning the loss of craft skills and the values which created objects still in use more than 300 years later. They are special, my clocks, not like things with a battery that you buy today and then throw away when the battery runs out.
At the Cheshire workshop, where clocks stand eight deep waiting for restoration, staff serve a minimum apprenticeship of five years or more, preparing them to work on some of the finest antiques in the world. We completely dismember the movement, which can contain 20 pivots, and refit the wheels. For the cases, we only restore with wood of the same period, so we may buy an antique table for 1,500 and hand-saw it into veneers to replace the wood on a damaged clocks case ‑ we are very much into recycling ! Coppelia Antiques only work on clocks in sleepy original condition, with a minimum of parts changed. All their clocks have their correct movements and original bases, unlike many for sale in auction houses, known as marriages, in which the movements do not belong to the case. We do not buy these type of clocks, says Roy. We never apologise for spending three or four weeks in restoring or bringing back to life an old tired clock, so long as it has not been butchered in the past. After we have finished the restoration and we are happy, all our staff admire the piece and it gives us all a lot of satisfaction. We have transformed something thats not been touched for over a hundred years sometimes, into something that you want to hold and cuddle. Roys personal clock collection includes one once owned by Rudyard Kipling, bought for 13 guineas in 1934, a brass lantern clock from the 1600s, made by one of the first clockmakers in Lancashire, and one of the first Cumberland clocks, made by Aaron Cheeseborough. Many clocks come with their own stories, such as the one bought from an old lady who remembered how, as a young girl, she had to curtsey every time it chimed. Roy also collects music boxes and other automata, such as a 19th century French music box featuring a monkey that smokes cigarettes, blows smoke rings and wafts the smoke away with its paw. The monkey was featured in an episode of the Sherlock Holmes TV series and smoked so many cigarettes that one of its tubes was blocked with tar and had to be replaced ‑ proof that smoking is bad for monkeys. Some customers, aware that time is money, buy antique clocks as tax-efficient investments, as they are exempt from capital gains and inheritance tax. One 90-year-old lady approached Roy to invest more than 3 million in clocks recently. Another tax rule exempts the clocks from VAT if they are exported, which explains the sad statistic that 87pc of sales go to the US, says Roy. As he talks about his love for clocks, an orchestra of chimes, bongs, rings and tings builds to a crescendo as the hour approaches. Roy has a simple explanation for the fascination of clocks, particularly grandfather clocks. Each tick is at a frequency of one per second, which is very similar to the first sound we hear, our mothers heartbeat in the womb. Its very soothing if you are in a room alone with a grandfather clock.