Crystal regulator clock

I'd like to find out info about this clock, which seems to be the same as one I have. Mine is packed away... the image below is from Google.

According to Google search results, it may be an 1890 Seth Thomas crystal regulator clock that was listed at one time on eBay. It doesn't appear in eBay search results, so must be an older listing. I didn't see another instance of the same clock in current or completed eBay results, nor in Google searches.

Is there a site I could use to research this without knowing a model number? Or does anyone have a reference book you could check? I'd very much appreciate any info or to be pointed in the right direction.

 

Could equally be an Ansonia model. They were cheaper versions of French late 19th C 4 glass clocks and most clockmakers made a version of the design. Some more elaborate than others, but as they were copying a French clock readily available to the richer patrons, there was no point in making American versions that would be more expensive than the finer French ones.

It really makes no difference who made them, as a class they show more price variation between sale venues and design details and condition than they do between makers.

The way to spot these at a glance, to distinguish them from the French made ones is that the larger, cruder movement meant the winding holes are in the chapter ring instead of inside it. Just about all US made imitations of French clocks show this distinguishing feature because they all shared the common, larger movements. They usually have imitation mercury compensated pendulums, not the real thing.

If you unpack the clock from the attic, the maker may be named on the backplate. There are books on American clocks that list all the different model names, I think I have a copy myself somewhere, but really this is purely academic.

 

Hi Pat,
Cute clock but does it strike? If it does it is NOT a regulator. If regulators struck (ring/chime) they would lose time and not be used as a regulator. Just a minor point. AF is the man to go to even if he poo poos most American factory made clocks.
greg

 

Crystal Regulator is what they have been called since they were made, so it's a fair usage, like the well known Ansonia regulators, just a term of the trade.
Serious regulators are almost always simply timepieces, but not always, and there is no inherent reason why a regulator should not strike, Big Ben bongs loud enough and is a regulator quality clock. The main reason why proper regulators are timepieces is because the extra cost would be wasted.

The most typical characteristic of a regulator is weight drive, more constant than the best spring, but a chronometer is spring driven and is certainly a regulator.

 

Hi AF,
Thanks for straightening me out. Goodness knows I am not a clock maven but i do know who to go to.. Things we taken for granted. I was always told a true regulator never struck. I usually saw the Austrian/German regulators.
greg

 

With rare exceptions the Vienna regulators were not regulators either. The vast majority had a seconds dial marked to 60 seconds that the clock covered in 45 seconds because they had a 3/4 seconds pendulum instead of a yard long seconds pendulum. It was just the way they were made. The seconds dial was there for the look of it.

 

Thanks for the info and interesting discussion, Af and Greg.

It was my mother's clock and I don't recall it ever striking, just looking pretty on her dining room buffet. It's currently sitting in my dining room (morphed into an over-stuffed library), but still packed in a box from bringing it up from NY. I don't have any place to put it so probably will keep it packed until I figure out what I want to do with it.

I have the key, but don't remember if it works. If I decide to sell it, how much of a difference will it make if it's not running?

 

The good news is that it probably works. The movements were not finely made but they were durable. Your parents probably did not wind the strike spring, it is an 8 day strike model, almost certainly. See if it works first before worrying about how much a non runner would be worth.

 

Thanks, Af, makes sense.

I think when I lived home my mother kept it running but that was a long time ago. I don't think she had it running in later years.

I found this ad for another Connecticut clock company in an eBay listing. The clock in the middle bottom position looks somewhat like my clock so I guess this company's a possibility as well, assuming they weren't just a distributor.