Kitchen Clocks
If you like the sway of a pendulum and the tick tock clock that doesn't take up lots of space, a kitchen clock might be just the one for you.The kitchen clock is known for its highly ornate appearance, and thus came the expression, 'Gingerbread' clock. Of course, some are more elaborate than others; some even have hand painting on the dials or glass. Lower and middle income homes wanted pretty clocks but could not afford handcrafted models. Therefore, American companies in the mid 1800s produced an inexpensive press-molded clock that many homes place on a shelf in the kitchen.
The gingerbread look was very popular during the Victorian era and it could be found on everything from house trip to furniture to useful home gadgets like clocks. It was known as a kitchen clock, because most home had few clocks and most models were designed specifically for a certain room of the house. The kitchen area was a gathering place of sorts for the family and was thus one of the most common places where the home`s only clock would be kept. Some clocks of this time period even featured an alarm.
The number of features included in a clock can usually be identified by the number of winding arbors included on it. One arbor usually indicates the clock has a time function only, 2 arbors usually means time and strike feature. These clocks may posses the ability to strike on the hour and the ½ hour. 3 arbors would indicate the that the clock can chime every 15 minutes. Some clocks had only 2 arbors, but were modified to be able to strike every 15 minutes as well. Clocks of this type are more rare and are very valuable.