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Longcase or Grandfather clock?
There is often confusion between the terms ‘longcase clock’ and ‘grandfather clock’. Many people have heard of the term grandfather clock but not longcase, and here I will explain, as best I can, why we prefer the use of longcase as a description of this type of clock.
The longcase clock first came into being at the end of the 17th. century. Before then, the domestic clock took the form a hanging wall clock. Typically in a brass case which looked like a lantern, with a weight hanging from a chain that you would wind up at night, hoping that, by morning, it had kept reasonable enough time for you to be awakened by the alarm, thereby enabling you to be up and off on your journey without the need for the sundial.
As the accuracy of this type of clock was greatly improved, following the application of the pendulum to clockwork, there was a desire to develop this simple alarm piece into a fully functioning timekeeper for all hours of the day. Up to now, clocks had only run for short periods (12 to 30 hours on a wind), but with the increased accuracy came increased periods between winding , now once a week or month was sufficient. This type of clock needed two weights as well as the long pendulum – all hanging from the one hook!
The clock needed to be housed in a case of some-kind, and it needed to be a long one. Hence the term ‘longcase clock’, the clock in the long case.
Much later on, in Victorian times, and very much when these clocks would be seen as old fashioned, there was a song written by Henry C. Work, an American, called My Grandfather’s Clock, and this is when the Longcase Clock began being called the Grandfather Clock. So, it can be seen that, the correct term which had been used for over a century, is, in fact, the Longcase not Grandfather clock, but whichever you choose to call them, they have served their various owners well over the many years they have been around.
