By Carl W. Drepperd — For a considerable number of years, the discriminating antiques collectors of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, have noted the occasional appearance of a secretary desk, secretary bookcase, tea table, bow-front corner cupboard, or tall-case clock of very fine workmanship and quite unusual carving. These pieces were found only in and around Lancaster and, in the form of tall case clocks, seem to have been made in substantially the same style until at least 1820 and probably until 1830; these dates...

Call Them Grandfather or Tall-Case, Gary Sullivan Knows Big Clocks

By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn — As a teenager, I got into repairing the old furniture in our attic. One day, I wandered into a local antiques shop and asked the guy there if he had anything that needed to be repaired. He gave me a few things to do. It just happened that he was a clock specialist, and he introduced me to other clock dealers. So from a pretty young age, I was repairing and refinishing clock cases. I very quickly transitioned from repairing to buying and selling. I’ve been doing appraisal work for probably...

The Care and Repair of 19th-Century American Clocks

By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis — I was working as a jewelry department manager for a department store, and I had a customer who brought a clock in for repair. I was able to fix her clock very quickly and easily, and I didn’t charge her anything. It turned out she had a huge collection, and she asked me to see the rest of them. She had these amazing 18th-century bracket clocks and 18th-century tall-case clocks. She had a gorgeous skeleton clock and even an Atmos clock. So that planted the seed, but it was many years later...

English Clocks in American Cases

By Lockwood Barr — Tall case clocks represented two crafts; that of the clockmaker who worked in metal and that of the cabinetmaker who worked in wood. In 18th-Century England and Europe, the two were sometimes combined in one man. More often, however, the clockmaker merely supervised the making of the case. These fine clocks, each one a masterpiece, were so expensive that only the wealthy could afford them. Yet there was a demand for them, both in the country of origin and over in America. The...

The Timeless Appeal of the Westclock Big and Baby Bens

By Dave Margulius — How did I get interested in clocks? Something about them has always been ingrained in me. My mom’s father had a small collection of antique clocks and when I was a little boy he showed me how to wind them and regulate them. When I was eight we moved to a new house and my mom and I were looking in the attic and found an old octagon wall clock made by Waterbury, probably dated about 1880. That was the first antique clock I owned myself. I hung it on my wall and we tried to get it fixed...