he golden age of development of English tall case clocks was from around 1660 to 1730.


At first tall case clocks were made for kings, queens, and nobles and early clocks were constructed using the popular classical proportions of the day. These clocks were characterized by a narrow pendulum cabinet and a portico type bonnet. Eventually cabinet and clock makers developed ways to reduce the cost of these tall case clocks making them more affordable and thereby developing a greater demand.

Early American tall case clock construction was based on the English tradition.

Due to the fact there were no trained clockmakers in the colonies. the first tall case clocks were imported from England. Eventually only the mechanisms of the clocks were imported for ease in shipment, requiring a craftsman to assemble at their destination.

The first clocks made in the American colonies were replicas of those being made for the English market in the “then popular Baroque style.” New York, New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia were colonial clockmaking centres. Benjamin Chandlee from Philadelphia, developed a case under seven feet in height for colonial homes (which often had lower ceilings).

Each early American-made clock was crafted using hand tools and took months of painstaking work. Machinery that might have aided colonial production was prohibited by English law from being exported to the colonies. Therefore, tall case clocks were found in only the most well-to-do homes in the colonies and would have been a symbol of the owner’s socio-economic status within the community.

Craftsman workshops in America at the turn of the century influenced by Gustav Stickley’s Mission style Long case clocks, produced a companion range of smaller mantle clocks utilising the simple clean lines and quarter-sawn American oak case construction he preferred.

These unique clock designs are reproduced today and available for sale.

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