CLOCKS And The Budding HOROLOGIST

Darryl's work day ends around 4:00, which gives him plenty of TIME to pursue his new hobby -

Horology.

Yes, ever since he bought his first old clock last year in St. Louis, Darryl has become fascinated with fixing and restoring old clocks. Here are a few of my favorites. 

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The clock that started it all. As I said, Darryl found this late 1800's Gustav-Becker clock at an Auction in St. Louis. It was sold "non-working" and within a couple of hours Darryl had it working. And - he was hooked!

GUSTAV

This next clock is a Seth Thomas Mantle clock from the early 1900's, I think. It is another "non-working' clock he found online or at a garage sale. Actually, many of the clocks he has found have been listed as non-working.

SETH

 This beautiful clock is a Gilbert, so that's what we call it. Yes, that's right, we name our clocks. Once we had more that 4, if one was off and Darryl would ask "Which clock was that?" I couldn't just say "The one in the living room" since we had 3 in there, so I started naming them. Now, I just say "That was Seth, or Thomas, etc." It works great.

GILBERT

This Vienna Regulator is just over 4' in length from top to bottom. As you can see, it is a weighted clock and not a spring clock. All of these clocks will run for a week or 8 days once they are wound.

FERDINAND - named after my grandpa Fiege.

 This is our little haunted clock. Darryl bought several clocks from a collection and this little Ansonia has a "Bim Bam" or 2 tone chime on the hour and 1/2 hour. But something inside isn't right and it sounds "haunted".

SPOOKY

 This regulator is a has a beautiful burled wood case and a bell instead of a gong. 

CLARENCE

Each clock is different in both the sound and tones of it's Gong, chime or bell and in it's case and crown. Look at the carved deer head on this Gustav-Becker.

GASTON

I think this is probably Darryl's favorite clock. This Adler clock is probably the quietest movement or tick-tock, of all the clocks. It has a free swinging pendulum and the most beautiful tone to it's gong.  

ADLER

 Darryl bought several clocks at one time, most mantle clocks, and he started naming them after our grandmothers, but when he took this clock apart we found a history written on the inside of the case. It was purchased in 1882 by a woman named Wilhelmina when she was pregnant with her daughter Susan. In 1916 she presented it to her daughter as a gift. 

WILHELMINA
- I had a great aunt with that name. Everyone called her Minnie.

 This sweet little Art Deco clock has a Westminster Chime that goes on the quarter hours. It's from the 1920's or 30's.

CHARLOTTE

 A beautifully carved and decorated Gilbert Clock from the early Twentieth Century.

BEULAH

This pretty little regulator isn't as fancy as some, but is quiet, keeps perfect time and has a pretty, but somewhat quiet sounding Gong.

DOC

Someone refinished the wood on this little clock. It's quite pretty and I think very "Federalist" in style.

MARTHA

Martha's clock works.

This is Darryl's bargain buy, and probably the best clock we own, and I think it is his favorite. This is a Menneville Art clock from the 1920's. She is 33" wide, 18" tall and her carved stone base, quartz stone inlay and clock stand with brass and Ivoreen sculptures make her weight about 100 lbs.

RUTH

Just a couple of weeks ago we aquired a couple of cuckoo clocks. This pretty little Chalet clock has muscians that move from side to side, dancers that circle in and out of the chalet and a pretty little bird for the cuckoo. The cuckoo's are weighted of course, and must be wound every 12 hours.

The Birdhouse cuckoo doesn't do anything fancy, but she sure is pretty.

It is my humble opinion that clock and watch makers were the "computer nerds" of  the previous centuries.

BECKER

There is so much inside one of these clocks,...
 

...to be able to take all of those gears, cogs, springs, washers, dials, etc., and put them in something as large as a building or as small as a wrist watch and know where each piece goes is an amazing talent.

Darryl has become good friends with an horologist here named Glen and they spend many hours together working on and fixing up these beautiful time pieces. We now have 16 working clocks in our little apartment. To answer the questions you are surely thinking:

1. No they don't keep me awake. I don't even hear them until time for the alarm clock to go off.

2. When it is very quiet and I actually notice all the "Ticks and tocks" it is a very soothing sound.

3. Most of the time we don't even notice when they all go off at the top of the hour - UNLESS, one of them gongs the wrong time. Then we notice it. 

"Life teaches us to make good use of time, while time teaches us the value of life." - unknown