“The only time I hear them,” John Delaney remarks of the 120 antique American tall-case clocks crammed into his West Townsend, Massachusetts, gallery, “is when they stop.” It has often been said that the steady ticktock of a classic timepiece resembles a heartbeat, and the tall-case—also known as the grandfather or, in Britain, the long-case—has other features that evoke the human body, from stylized feet to painted face. (The American composer Henry Clay Work gave the tall-case its nickname, referring to “my grandfather’s clock” in a popular 19th-century ditty he wrote that was inspired by one in the lobby of an English hotel that kept perfect time until the two elderly brothers who owned it died.) “It is the only living piece of furniture you can own,” says the Massachusetts-based collector Todd Keating, who has eight of them.

Collectors of the imposing, finely crafted antique tall-cases are attracted not only by their decorative beauty but also by the “extra value” provided by their unseen works. “Collectors of fine furniture will buy the finest clocks as both furnishing and horological pieces,” says the Sotheby’s London horology expert Jonathan Hills. “The market for golden-era long-case clocks has never been stronger.”

The tall-case clock was a luxury item and was therefore made in major cities throughout Europe, where demand was high and the clientele sophisticated, according to Emily Eerdmans, of New York’s Hyde Park Antiques, which specializes in 18th- and 19th-century English furniture. Auction bidders favor examples by such 17th-century British makers as Daniel Quare, Thomas Tompion, Joseph Knibb, Edward East and Henry Jones, acknowledged as the supreme masters of their trade, along with the American grandfather clocks from this period, which were largely modeled on their British counterparts. Antique Continental floor clocks, especially those from France and Holland, also have enthusiasts, mostly among the French and Dutch. Although London is the traditional center of the antique clock market, many people see the tall-case as a piece of furniture, and that view has made them at home in the various European furniture sales held in New York and Paris as well, says Christie’s horology specialist Jamie Collingridge. Although Geneva is a prominent center for the watch market, he adds, the Swiss were not big clock makers.

A Dutch mathematician and physicist, Christiaan Huygens, is credited with being the first, in 1656, to use a pendulum as a regulator, replacing less-accurate mechanisms. Both the English and the French were quick to adopt this innovation. But it was a Londoner, William Clement, who perfected it and is commonly regarded as the father of the grandfather. Clement’s enhancement, introduced around 1670, was the anchor escapement mechanism, which allows for longer, slower pendulums and more precise timekeeping. Technical advances like that, together with exceptional workmanship, placed British clock makers at the forefront of the industry throughout the tall-case’s heyday, which lasted until around 1730. The French, on the other hand, were renowned for ornate clock cases, which often echoed the sculpture and decorative objects of the period.

Today, says Sotheby’s Hills, prices for antique tall-case clocks “range from a few hundred dollars for a poor example up to $3 million for the best 18th-century French example.” In the million-dollar category is a tall Louis XVI ormolu-mounted ebony grandfather, made in 1774, that was sold at Christie’s in July 1999 as part of the collection of the brothers Albert and Nathaniel von Rothschild, of the storied banking dynasty. It made £1.93 million ($3 million), roughly three times the estimate of £500,000 to £800,000—an unprecedented price due in large part to the clock’s impressive provenance, prime condition, pleasing proportions and, significantly, stunning gilt-bronze embellishments, including flower-head-festooned guilloche bands, fruiting laurel flutes and wreath and a flaming-urn crown with foliate sprays. Also important to its valuation, however, were the esteemed craftsmen associated with it: Balthazar Lieutaud, who made the case; Ferdinand Berthoud, the movement; and Philippe Caffiri, the mounts.

“In general, the long-case clocks’ movements are relatively identical. It is more of a name game when assessing a clock’s value,” says Delaney, who runs his 35-year-old family business with his brother, Sean. He adds that it is the mechanism maker who is the most important in this regard and “often gets all the credit.” However, as is evident from the list of artisans involved with the Louis XVI clock, these pieces were customarily collaborative works, produced by a cadre of craftsmen and apprentices. “There are usually three hands at work,” says Delaney, “the clock maker, who provides the mechanism, a cabinetmaker and an ornamental painter.” Case making was a typically narrow specialty.

According to Christie’s Collingridge, superlative examples by top British makers aren’t often on the market. In fact, only a few auction lots a year are valued at more than $200,000. Such a high-priced item appeared in July 2003 in one of Christie’s London twice-yearly important-clock sales: a Queen Anne tall-case with a month duration (the period before it requires rewinding) made by Edward Banger and Thomas Tompion, the latter of whom is famous for his inventive mechanisms. The clock commanded £621,250 ($1.01 million), tripling expectations. In 2004 a small windfall of tall-case clocks by top makers came up at Sotheby’s as part of a sale of masterworks from the Time Museum—founded by Illinois industrialist Seth Atwood—which had been dissolved when  the city of Chicago wasn’t able to purchase the collection. Assembled over three decades, the 1,500-piece collection included a circa 1685 ebony-veneered tall-case clock with a Roman striking mechanism (incorporating two bells of different pitches) by Joseph Knibb, a maker for King Charles II and the inventor of that type of mechanism. The clock was bought by a British collector for $540,000, more than double its high estimate.

In addition to the mechanical movement and duration (30 hours, 8 days, a month or a year), such complications as calendar, moon and tidal dials or musical movements enhance a tall-case clock’s desirability. Hyde Park Antiques is currently offering a circa 1780 walnut grandfather by the London maker Alexander Cummings with three subsidiary dials—for days of the week, silent or strike, and moon phase—for $160,000. Among the tall-case clocks in Delaney’s inventory is a circa 1830 eight-tune musical-movement example by the Philadelphia maker Thomas Hutchinson that is worth around $50,000. “Musical movements were complicated to manufacture and, as a result, are somewhat uncommon,” says Delaney.

The first tall-cases in America were imported from England in the mid-1680s. These served as models for the earliest home-grown pieces, made a decade later. American production expanded, and by the beginning of the 19th century, so-called grandmother clocks, smaller versions of the grandfather that were based on English 17th-century dwarf clocks, had also become popular. At the end of the 1870s, inexpensive movements made in the U.S. were flooding the market, both Stateside and abroad.

Among the big names in early American tall-case-clock manufacture are Thomas Harland and the four Willard brothers, particularly Simon and Aaron. Harland was the colonies’ first grandfather maker, arriving from England on the ship carrying the tea that was thrown overboard in the Boston Harbor in 1773 and settling in Norwich, Connecticut, where he pioneered the use of standardized and interchangeable parts. The Willards, who were active in the late 18th century, were known for simplifying the grandfather’s action mechanism and for manufacturing the first affordable timepieces in the States.

Collector Todd Keating, who has been acquiring clocks for some two decades, concentrates on Harland and the Connecticut makers descended from his apprentices. These include Daniel Burnap and Eli Terry, the latter known for establishing the first American clock factory, around 1800. “I enjoy following their evolution,” says Keating. Among his holdings is a tall-case by Burnap from the 1790s that has a painted dial, a rarity for the clock maker.  

American tall-case clocks are generally offered in Americana sales. The category’s auction record, $803,200, came at Sotheby’s in January 2004, set by a circa 1775 mahogany tall-case clock with a dial inscribed by Paul Rimbault of London and a case detailed by Nicholas Bernard and Martin Jugiez of Philadelphia, who, says Sotheby’s American expert Leslie Keno, “represent the apex of American design and carving.” (Transatlantic collaboration was common in Colonial times.) The clock’s complicated British-made movement, featuring eight melodies, boosted the price. “It’s like buying a Mercedes-Benz,” says Kirt Crump, a dealer in American clocks with a gallery in Madison, Connecticut, who nonetheless seeks out the work of Rimbault and his British brethren.

Beyond the movement, the case is also an important determinant of price. By and large, the ornamentation reflects the aesthetics of the time and location of manufacture. “Even if the clock is not signed, you can generally determine when and where, within 30 miles, it was made, judging by the characteristics of the case,” says Delaney. When a prime example by a top craftsman comes up for sale, collectors and dealers take notice. In January 2002 at Christie’s, for instance, the American antiques dealer George Samaha handed over a then-record $666,000 for a circa 1755 Queen Anne block-and-shell carved Newport clock whose case was attributed to the school of Job Townsend Sr., a member of the renowned Rhode Island furniture-making family.

A third factor in valuation is country of origin. British and Continental clock enthusiasts at the highest level tend to collect pieces from many countries, likely concentrating on those reflecting their own heritage. Hills notes the “strong following for 18th-century American tall-case clocks among collectors of American furniture.” Delaney adds that comparative scarcity plays a role, too. “With the exception of clocks made for the British nobility, early American tall-case clocks are generally worth more than their British counterparts, as there are fewer of them,” he says.

According to Hills, most tall-case clocks that were made outside major European cities, which make up about 80 percent of items available, are undervalued. “You can buy an 18th-century, 30-hour, simply made tall-case clock by a provincial maker for as little as $1,000,” says Christie’s Collingridge, “and even a nice eight-day mahogany example with a brass dial for $10,000.”

For those looking to buy a tall-case clock, experts recommend choosing a good example by a lesser maker over a poor example by a master—and one “ideally with as little change to the original as possible,” says Eerdmans. Hills notes that auction houses tend to offer clocks that are not restored, while dealers will guarantee that theirs are in working condition. Dealers such as London’s John Carlton-Smith and Anthony Woodburn of East Sussex do, however, stress originality of the clock movement and consider wonderfully patinated, untouched cases the hallmarks of their stocks. Both feature tall-case timepieces by such 18th- and 19th-century masters as George Graham, Thomas Cartwright and Joseph Windmills. “It is a good idea to buy from someone who knows as much about the engine as the bodywork. You wouldn’t want a car you couldn’t drive out of your garage,” says the New York dealer Jonathan Snellenburg, who carries an international selection of timepieces in his inventory. “If the clock has been cleaned, oiled and installed properly, it should be fairly trouble free.”

Even with the recent rise in interest, prices for antique tall-case clocks are still relatively modest, considering the complexity hidden inside each one. “Unlike a bronze or a painting,” says Collingridge, “what you see is most definitely not all you get.”

"Old Reliables" originally appeared in the May 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's May 2008 Table of Contents.