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The banjo clock, or banjo timepiece, is an American
Willard House & Clock Museum
located in Grafton, Mass., the original homestead of Simon Willard, home to the largest collection of Simon Willard clocks and his patented timepieces. 1802 introductions American inventions Clock designs Antiques Banjo
The banjo clock, or banjo timepiece, is an American wall
A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or serves a decorative purpose. There are various types of walls, including border barriers between countries, brick wal ...
clock
A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...
with a banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin.
...
-shaped case. It was invented by Simon Willard
Simon Willard (April 3, 1753 – August 30, 1848) was a celebrated American clockmaker. Simon Willard clocks were produced in Massachusetts in the towns of Grafton and Roxbury, near Boston. Among his many innovations and timekeeping improvem ...
, originally of Grafton, Massachusetts
Grafton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,664 at the 2020 census. The town consists of the North Grafton, Grafton, and South Grafton geographic areas, each with a separate ZIP Code. Incorporated ...
, later of Roxbury, Massachusetts
Roxbury () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Roxbury is a Municipal annexation in the United States, dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for ne ...
, and patented in 1802. The banjo clock normally lacks a striking mechanism and indicates time only by its hands and dial, for which reason some horologists may insist upon calling it a timepiece
A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...
rather than a true clock. In popular usage though, no such distinction is made.Wooden case
The banjo style of wooden case usually features a round opening for a painted dial, a long-waisted throat, and arectangular
In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90 ...
pendulum
A pendulum is a device made of a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate i ...
box with hinged door. Both the throat and door are ornamented with reverse-painted (''verre églomisé
''Verre églomisé'' is a French term referring to the process of applying both a design and gilding onto the rear face of glass to produce a mirror finish. The name is derived from the 18th-century French decorator and art-dealer Jean-Baptiste ...
'') glass panels, and the case is usually flanked by curved and pierced brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...
frets. A finial
A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature.
In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...
mounted atop the case usually takes the form of a cast-brass eagle
Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...
or a turned, giltwood acorn
The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...
.Production
Only 4,000 authentic Simon Willard banjo clocks were made. The style was widely copied by other members of the Willard family of clockmakers and many others clockmakers, both craftsmen and industrial manufacturers. Variants of the banjo-style clock made by others include examples with square or diamond-shaped dials, and the extremely opulent, heavily gilt "girandole" style.See also
* Lighthouse clockReferences
External links
{{commons category-inline, Banjo clocksWillard House & Clock Museum
located in Grafton, Mass., the original homestead of Simon Willard, home to the largest collection of Simon Willard clocks and his patented timepieces. 1802 introductions American inventions Clock designs Antiques Banjo