Grandfather Clocks vs Long Case Clocks vs Tall Case Clocks

Now you are in the market for one of those really tall standalone (against a wall) clocks, which has a pendulum swinging back and forth every second, and we even have one or more choices of chimes in addition to the hourly gong which strikes on the hour for the number of hours. OK, so do you want a grandfather clock, a tallcase or tall case clock, or a longcase or long case clock? The answer, to a large degree, may depend upon the Continent upon which you were raised on.

Natives of the United Kingdom and Continental Europe by and large will still refer to what Americans call a grandfather clock as a tallcase clock or longcase clock. To put this in some historical perspective, such clocks were known the world over as longcase clocks or tallcase clocks.

It was not until sometime after 1876 when Henry Work Clay wrote the song “My Grandfather’s Clock” that grandfather clocks started to be known by that name. The song became so popular, particularly in the USA, to a point where nowadays a grandfather clock is the term of choice. In merry old England and the rest of the United Kingdom, not to mention the rest of Europe, as is true with many things, tradition trumps change. One will still hear of tall case clocks and long case clocks most of the time, frequently with the addition of the grandfather clock terminology only to appeal to a broader audience.

Interestingly, in the experience of 1-800-4CLOCKS, many people refer to large wall clocks as grandfather clocks or grandmother clocks. A clock really truly does need to be a Floor Clock, yet another term used to describe Grandfather Clocks, to qualify as a Grandfather Clock. Less interesting but also noteworthy is that many people refer to grandfather clocks as granfather clocks, or sometime granfathers clocks. We assume this must be because that is how they heard these clocks described most of the time.

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