Grandfather clocks were originally known as floor clocks or long case clocks. A song written in 1875 called “The Grandfather’s Clock” told the story of an aging floor clock that stood in the George Hotel in North Yorkshire, England. Two brothers managed the hotel. The clock began slowly losing time immediately upon the death of one of the brothers, and upon the death of the second brother, the floor clock stopped working altogether despite numerous attempts to have the clock repaired. Eventually new management gained control of the George Hotel, but the clock remained in place as a tribute to the two brothers who had faithfully managed the hotel for so many years. The term “grandfather clock” caught on quickly after the song became widely known and since then, what were originally known as floor clocks are commonly called Grandfather Clocks and are a cherished part of our culture.

Over the years there have been numerous improvements to time-keeping devices and grandfather clocks are no exception. In modern times, a grandfather clock is a statement of excellent taste and firmly rooted tradition. Grandfather clocks are commonly a family heirloom that is passed down through the generations. Grandfather clocks vary somewhat in size, but are generally 6 to eight feet tall and lend a stately appearance to any room. You can also find smaller versions of grandfather clocks, which are known as grandmother and granddaughter clocks. Families for centuries have passed a cherished grandfather clock from one generation to the next, and today there are grandfather clocks with great historical and sentimental value. Some of the oldest known grandfather clocks are still used as the models for the grandfather clocks we purchase today. You will also be able to find more modern version of the grandfather clock in varying styles and colors.

Each time you see a grandfather clock, remind yourself of where this term originated and give a bit of thought to the long history of these treasured timepieces and heirlooms. If you do not own a grandfather clock you will be happy to know that it is easy to start your own family heirloom and you will be able to find the perfect grandfather clock in all price ranges.

Clocks are an important part of our culture and history. For centuries the quest to keep accurate time has resulted in the amazing ability to keep almost exact time in a functional, stylish package. Clock manufacturers go to great lengths to produce highly accurate clocks in a wide variety of designs. It is often the easiest path to simply purchase an inexpensive clock that functions adequately, but there are numerous choices and types when it comes to shopping for a clock. By simply taking the time to shop for your next clock rather than just pick up the cheapest, most convenient clock you can find, you will discover a wide range of clocks for any room in your home that will express your unique style and excellent taste.

Clocks are the perfect addition to any room, wall, desk, outdoor area, shelf, or mantle. A clock can be handcrafted so exquisitely crafted that it is of heirloom quality and would be a treasured addition to your family. There are clocks in any shape, color, style, and many feature additional functions such as alarms and weather forecasters. You may choose a traditional clock with hands and a numerical face, or a modern digital clock with sleek, contemporary styling. A clock is one of the better accessories you can choose for your home or office decor and you can often find great deals from online merchants.

Choosing a clock should be given a larger place of importance than we normally consider. A clock can be a wonderful decoration, a purely functional item that is purchased out of necessity, or an heirloom treasure to pass from generation to generation. Whether you want a full-size grandfather clock or a small wind-up alarm clock, take a little time in choosing your next new clock and stop to recall the pride and workmanship that have gone into creating clocks throughout history.

I’m starting to age I guess in that I’m enjoying more the sounds of my youth like a simple clockwork cuckoo clock. The timeless sound of the cuckoo bring back many memories. When I was a child, both my uncle and grandparents had cookoo clocks. I remember they were dark colored cases with ornate carvings but the bird that came out was brightly colored. I was told these were from the black forest in Germany.

I guess the Germans have a lock on authentic cuckoo clocks as when I got older, I went shopping for one and they were all German made clockworks. The new ones however were just like I remember. Darker carved woods on the outside with ornate carvings.

My parents had both a mantle clock and a wall clock that struck the quarter half and hour times. They were wonderful. Many people have fond memories about growing up. Foods, holidays, smells, and even sounds. I remember how our home was always breathing the sounds of our clocks. Even as an adult, going for visits brought me in many respects back to childhood days when hearing the constant patterned sounds of those time trackers. It was home!

Today, I have a grandfather clock, cuckoo clock, and several other clockwork type clocks all around my home. Yes, they aren’t as “accurate” as quartz timepieces or as fancy as the latest technology has to offer. But there’s something about their even pace, pendulums, weekly winding and yes, the announcement that time is marching on, that is somehow soothing. Almost melodic.

In the night, when every is asleep, I sometimes go down to the living room and just think. The clocks are busy, as always, pacing out time and announcing yet another quarter hour has past. It’s recognition of mortality, that some things don’t last, while others, like the cuckoo clock seem to last lifetimes.

In the last post, we looked at the impact the Internet has had on all of our lives. The convenience it has afforded us has allowed us to do everything from shop to work online and most of us have become so dependent on its conveniences that we are often hard pressed to find another option.

However, being the age that I am, I reverted to past behavior when I found myself in need of a wall clock for my family room. Wanting something really special to hang above my fireplace, I went in search of a bricks and mortar location; as I couldn’t imagine finding something of high enough quality online. But when I pulled the phone directory out and began to leaf through it, my teenage daughter stopped me in my tracks with “Are you kidding me mom?”

She logged on within seconds and had me at this amazing website where I found all of the most stunning, high quality (and affordable!) clocks I could ever hope to find in a retail outlet – and then some! Everything from grandfather clocks and mantel clocks to wall clocks and atomic clocks were on this one site and easy to browse by style, price, or manufacturer.

In found the wall clock I was looking for and it only took minutes. Within a few days it was delivered to my door and every time I look at it I am reminded of the luxuries I am privileged to have access to online.

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“Just imagine the chiming of a Grandfather Clock – that is the sound that turns a house into a home…”

Around 1875, the American songwriter Henry Work was staying at the George Hotel during a trip to England. He was told the unique story of their old clock and it’s previous owner, and after seeing the clock for himself, he decided to write a song about the fascinating coincidence that the clock stopped forever the moment its owner died. Mr. Work returned to America and published the song that sold over a million copies of sheet music about the clock grandfather entitled “My Grandfather’s Clock”. Until that time, clocks such as the one in the old George Hotel were given various names, but only since Henry Work’s song have large upright clocks been called ‘Grandfather Clocks’.

Grandfather clocks, also sometimes known as ‘Coffin Clocks’, come in a huge variety of sizes and designs, ranging from antiques built by famous clock makers several centuries ago, to those made today.

Pendulum clocks were developed by clockmakers in the mid 1600’s in a bid to obtain a greater degree of time-keeping accuracy. By giving them longer pendulums, clocks kept better time. These long-pendulum clocks were placed in tall wooden cases so that they could stand upright on the floor.

Since then, Grandfather clocks have become very popular items of household furniture, and have appeared in a huge variety of cases – many styles of which became fashionable, and then fell out of favor as fashion tastes changed. Grandfather clocks were sometimes embellished with ornate woodcarving, and often came complete with chimes, tunes, and moon-phase dials.

Clock collecting is a serious passion for many clock lovers around the world. Today, some antique clocks from the 1600’s to 1700’s fetch tens of thousands of dollars.

Home decoration has always been something that some of us take more seriously than others. There are those of us who sort of wing it as we go along – and we’re perfectly fine with that; desiring to have a space that is comfortable regardless of its aesthetic appeal. Then there are others of us who take the decorating of our home quite seriously indeed and put all of our creative resources towards finding those elements that will help our ideas come to life.

Through our journey in decorating we may come to find those pieces that surprise us; the small decorative elements that are essentially simple and very affordable but that still make quite an impact in terms of transforming our rooms. Clocks are very much this way, as they can be found in even the smallest of sizes and at the most affordable of prices; but add them to a room and you suddenly have a very different look. A mantel clock in any decorative style placed above a fireplace, a fun and interesting wall clock placed in a family room, or an antique styled grandfather clock placed in a dining room; this – and more - can all go a long way towards completely transforming a home.

These are the pieces that home decorators strive to find; they are the “nuggets” of home décor; the pieces that, while not large or expensive, are just the thing to nudge the home’s décor into a new bracket. Clocks are to be taken seriously; they are pieces that can make any room in your home something truly unique and certainly your own.

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Moving can be an expensive prospect. I recently made a big move myself and was alarmed with how quickly we went over the initial budget that we had put in place. There are costs here, and costs there – everything added up before knew it and we were facing much more in terms of moving expenses than we ever thought possible. This meant, of course, that any plans I had of purchasing new furniture and accessories for the rooms that I had in mind were essentially out the window – in the short term anyway. The reality was that I needed a few months under my belt to get myself back on track before I started making any additional purchases.

This also meant that whatever I had with me in the old house was coming with me to the new house and I was going to have to make it work. And I did make it work. Some of the furniture was a little awkward and not sized properly for the rooms it was occupying but with some small changes it was fine on a temporary basis. But what I was most surprised about was how well my clocks made the transition.

I have long been collecting clocks of all kinds; and at this point I have everything from mantel clocks to a big beautiful grandfather clock as a part of my repertoire. The house I came from was a bit more traditional than this new house which is a contemporary model. But the clocks look as if they have always been here; a testament to their high quality and versatile design.

I get most of my clocks online through this amazing web site that I found. There, you can browse through all manner of clocks to your heart’s content and make a purchase knowing you are getting the highest quality product at the best prices. I will undoubtedly use them in finding clocks for this house – as well as the next.

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Today’s consuming public is used to a high level of convenience, afforded to them by the Internet. The conventional meaning for “legwork” – referring to the effort and research that shoppers would traditionally put into finding the perfect product is now work that is done on a virtual – rather than physical – level. Shopping has become something that is done from a work or home computer; with the click of a few keys consumers can compare and contrast similar products in terms of quality, performance, and price. Even products for which consumers may not expect to be able to shop online are readily available; such as clocks.

Clocks are something to which people rarely give much thought – until they are in the market to buy one. Hanging from our walls, sitting atop our mantels, standing in the corners of our rooms, or perching on the edge of a bedroom nightstand, clocks are something that we take for granted in terms of their functionality. But shopping for clocks becomes more than just finding a functional clock – it becomes about finding a clock that works with the overall design of the home; something that can be accomplished online.

Suppliers such as 1-800-4CLOCKS that offer online services understand the importance of offering high quality products in a way that is most convenient and acceptable for modern consumers. Customers can logon and find clocks of all types - mantel clocks, wall clocks, atomic clocks, grandfather clocks, and styles – contemporary, traditional, antique – from the comfort of their home. By having this convenient service, clock manufacturers such as 1-800-4CLOCKS allow shoppers to take the time to examine the many styles of clocks available to them and decide what will work best for their home.

Surely I am no different than a great number of people out there that do their best to decorate their homes within their budget. But as I related in my last post, I had fallen into a bad pattern of simply filling my home with things for which I really had no deep and abiding love; they were just things that I could afford and that I thought would hold me over in terms of decorating until I could ultimately fit what I wanted into my budget.

But as I recounted, I have learned through a love of home design shows that it is far better to pick up a few well loved pieces than to fill a home with lesser quality things that have no emotional value to the person living there. This does not mean that every piece in a home has to have a sentimental attachment; it means that in order for a home design to really come together you must really love the pieces with which you surround yourself. Which is how I found my way to clocks.

I always loved clocks from afar but I didn’t really understand how they would work in my home. I guess I always had it in my head that clocks were of traditional design in most cases; a design that I could appreciate but that wouldn’t necessarily fit with my own home décor.

But recently I found this amazing website that has opened to me the world of clocks. There I have found clocks of every style and design – from traditional to modern, in styles and materials that appeal to my own sense of decorating and that have worked unbelievably well in pulling my home décor together. From the mantel clock I have in my family room to my favorite purchase of the year – a beautiful grandfather clock – I have found pieces that I truly love!

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For homeowners attempting to make the most of their home’s décor, they understand that the power is in the details. By accomplishing just a few goals homeowners can create powerful visual impact in any room in their home – through the use of color, texture, and deliberate placement of furniture and decorative items. Wall space is one area that tends to overwhelm homeowners, as it can seem like a very large space where the options are endless but the wrong choice can have disastrous consequences. Many people on the search for an appropriate focal point for their walls turn to wall clocks to help infuse a room with style and provide a functional element to the room as well.

Wall clocks may have traditionally been thought of as a bit of an afterthought; a decorative element that didn’t carry much weight on its own. But today, modern wall clocks have all the functionality and style to pull a room together and stand on their own; even if standing means hanging on the wall.

Wall clocks were once the affordable way to bring the elegance of clocks into the home; miniature versions of the stately grandfather clock that was largely unaffordable. Wall clocks are now one of the many manifestations of timekeeping available through high-end suppliers such as 1-800-4CLOCKS. There, consumers are able to choose from wall clocks of many different varieties – modern and sleek, traditional and ornate, antique and distressed; the choices are endless and only dependent on the personal needs of the customer.