Publications by our Members

NEW PAPERBACK: LIMITED EDITION

Charles Vaughan of Pontypool
A Mystery Clockmaker and His Clocks
by W. Linnard

This is a detailed study of Charles Vaughan, head of an important family of early clockmakers in industrial South Wales. Vaughan himself, the most prolific clockmaker in South Wales during the eighteenth century, is still something of a mystery, but he produced large numbers of long-case clocks with interesting and distinctive dials and quite unique movements, housed in country cases of oak and elm, full of character.
Lavishly illustrated, this book is based on family-history research, together with an in-depth study of all the surviving Vaughan clocks known, fifty in all, and presents a penetrating analysis of their technical and stylistic features and manufacture. Most of the clocks are thirty-hour long-cases with brass dials, ranging in date from 1742 to 1796. A few are eight-day brass-dial clocks, and one is an early painted-dial clock.
The book is a major contribution to the study of early clock-making in an industrial part of South Wales, and reveals the numerous idiosyncrasies and endearing naivety that make the Vaughan clocks so very interesting and attractive today, not only for clock enthusiasts but also for collectors of Welsh antiques.

 

Published by Tathan Books,

 

 

HARDBACK or SOFT COVER EDITIONS - FULL COLOUR:

Henry Williams, Lancarvan

By E.W.Cloutman and W.Linnard

An important new update to our orirginal book has been published on Henry Williams (1727-1790), the famous Welsh clockmaker who, working in his little workshop in the rural Vale of Glamorgan, produced some of the finest and most interesting clocks ever made in Wales. This book describes his apprenticeship and subsequent career, illustrates in detail 39 of his clocks in full colour, and gives a penetrating analysis of his workshop practice and clock production.The evidence suggests that Henry Williams and the famous Bilbie family of clockmakers in Somerset, were using the same dial and casemakers, probably in Bristol.

Compiled by Ed Cloutman and Bill Linnard after more than a decade of research, the book has 214 pages in standard portrait format (20x25cm) and is available in two choices of paper and hard or soft cover.

 

The book can be previewed and ordered directly from the Blurb Site:   HERE
The first limited edition is now out of print.

 

 

HARDBACK:

Wales Clocks and Clockmakers
by William Linnard

This comprehensive reference book treats the subject from the earliest records of medieval Welsh clocks and their makers, through the eighteenth century, to the decline of traditional clockmaking at the end of the nineteenth century.
It includes: early turret clocks in Welsh churches; the first records of domestic clocks in Wales; and the inventories of Welsh clockmakers. Fully illustrated accounts are given of brass-dial and painted-dial longcase clocks, including distinctively Welsh features of dial decoration and case design. Further chapters cover Welsh tidal-dial clocks, and the many Welshmen who worked as clockmakers and watchmakers in London, Bristol and Shrewsbury. There are also detailed descriptions of some outstanding Welsh clocks.
A major part of this book is the comprehensive illustrated alphabetical list, giving details of well over 2,000 individual Welsh clockmakers and their clocks, while geographical and subject indexes facilitate searches and cross-referencing.
This book, the first on the clocks and clockmakers of Wales in over a quarter of a century, incorporates the latest research, much of it never before published. Much needed and long awaited, it is an essential resource for horologists, antique collectors and Welsh historians alike.

272 pages, hardback, 243 illustrations, map, appendix, index.

For full details of the book contact Mayfield Books  HERE 

 

 

 

 

 

PAPERBACK:

The Church Bells of Breconshire: their inscriptions and founders
by John C Eisel

This is a comprehensive and definitive study of the church bells of Breconshire and the frames which contain them. It also lists all the known turret clocks in the church towers of the area, and gives the documentary evidence for a surprising number of early turret clocks.

Published July 2002 - Logaston Press IBSN1 873827 23 7.

Available only from John Eisel, 10 Lugg View Close, Hereford HT1 1JF .

 

 

 

 

 

 

HARDBACK:

HEREFORDSHIRE Clockmakers & Watchmakers
by Tony Branston and John C Eisel

This book covers clockmakers and watchmakers in Herefordshire from the earliest times until the end of the nineteenth century. Despite the rural nature of the county, a surprising number plied their trade in the county, not only in Hereford and the surrounding market towns, but also in isolated rural communities.

The major part of the book is an alphabetical list of makers and their journeyman, including those Hereford­shire apprentices who left the county to learn the trade elsewhere. This list gives known working dates, taken from local records and newspapers as well as trade directories. It is comprehensively illustrated with 165 photographs of clocks and advertisements. There are also detailed descriptions of some notable clocks by local makers. There is also a list of church clocks in the county.

Published 2005 - Mayfield Books ISBN 0 9540525 7 9