The Amish re-create Shaker designs in hardwood Grandfather inspired clocks for modern homes of today. Built in oak, maple, cherry or hickory these multi-drawered beauties will fit in design themes from country to modern. It is interesting that while these clocks are an honorable remembrance of the Shakers these same handsome long case clocks and the time they kept was once the reason for intriguing doctrine among the Shakers and their community leaders. Until at least the late 1830’s clock were thought of as frivolous and “contrary to order”.

Although there is record that the Mount Lebanon Shakers had their own clock maker in 1790, in the early years it was not clocks but bells that called workers in for meals and meetings. For years only Elders dealing with the outside world needed watches and it was thought that watches and clocks were time wasters, causing people to watch them instead of their work. Since work is believed to fill the time allotted for it the Shakers instead focused on their creativity and satisfaction of a job well done. It also helped them to rely on their own natural senses or build their skills at ancient time keeping by using the sun. Although a few examples of clocks exist in places like Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio there were very few known clocks to exist in Shaker communities unless brought in by converts.

The Shakers operated on a harmonious schedule that always left a healthy balance between work and time with God. In 1887 an issue was published of “The Shaker Manifesto”. In it there was insight on the views of the Shakers about time pieces:

“The clock is an emblem of a Shaker community because everything goes on time…Promptness, absolute punctuality, is a sine qua non (”without which there is nothing”) of a successful community.”

The time keeping bells installed at the Shaker’s Sabbathday Lake were indeed attached to a clock that struck only hours and had no face. The minutes were not an issue with the Shakers, just the hours. Some communities resorted to conch shell blowers when they did not have bells to round up the Brothers and Sisters.

Tags: Amish, amish clocks, Clocks, floor clocks, grandfather clocks, long case clocks, shaker clocks, shakers

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 9:28 am and is filed under Amish Furniture Styles, Clocks, History of Furniture Making, Shaker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.