Many Mora clock faces are found marked with "A A S "—these are the initials of Krång Anders Andersson (1727-1799)

of Östnor, traditionally thought of as one of the first clockmakers in Mora area.

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The initials first appeared on a clock faced dated around 1792.

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Mora clocks began as the product of a cooperative effort to support the income of farming families in the Mora region

that had been hit by poor harvests and each cooperative member would specialise in making a clock part - the hood, case, door, plinths etc.

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Thats why every clock you find is so unique - its the result of several artistic visions all working together. We believe that in total about 40,000 mora clocks may have been made at the height of their manufacture and as longcase clocks were very popular in that period in Sweden, most Swedish houses would have had them especially when they were given as wedding presents in poorer families.

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You find the clocks also incorporated in other furniture such as cuboards, drawers, chiffoniers, armoires and even beds!

Originally developed from the French Rococo and earlier Baroque styles of France, the mora clock shape with its classic Earth Goddess pregnant belly really caught on and as clocks began to be made across Sweden, the name 'Mora Clock' became synonymous with the shape as opposed to just the region from which the earliest examples originated.

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Usually made from local pine or very rarely oak, they were decorated in a variety of colours from the traditional reds, ochres and yellows of the kurbits tradition through plain whites and greys to very ornate trompe l'oeil painted scenes and decoration.

 

The mechanisms in mora clocks are extremely basic and rather rough and ready -

they give modern clock repairers a real headache!

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They can work fine nice cleaned repaired and set up but they are not reliable as English clocks of the period would be as they do not feature the same sophisticated workings.

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The set up balances the swing plane of the pendulum against the inertia of the mechanism, the position of the body resting on the floor and the 2 weights suspended from the mechanism.

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