Posted 12 years ago
oledebil
(164 items)
My late wife bought this about 20 yrs ago "because she liked it" for $5-00. I can't see any makers name on it anywhere. it has the numbers 8240 and f13cm stamped on the back plate and 195 impressed into the case. looks like it may have had a pendulum at some stage but it may have broken off. what the other little brass jigger is I've no idea, it never worked when we got it, just sits on an old mantle piece gathering dust. the case seems to be stained plywood, what timber the front is I don't know.
That movement is possibly German, or some other manufacturer using the metric system. I believe the "8240" means that the movement has been designed for 8,240 beats per hour using a pendulum length of 13 centimeters. The part that you show is not broken. It's called a pendulum leader. DON'T LOSE IT! :)
It looks like you're missing the suspension spring that the leader hangs on as well as the pendulum weight which hooks on the leader. Both can be replaced without too much trouble. The leader goes in the slot of the crutch which is that long flat piece of brass that comes out of the back of your clock's movement. If you ever got it working again, it would probably play the Westminster Chime on the quarter-hours with an hourly strike at the top of the hour. The wood appears to be some type of hardwood veneer. I'm not sure of the species. Typically Mahogany, Walnut and/or Maple were popular wood veneers used. It's has a nice Art Deco kind of style to it. I bet it sounded very nice when it was working.
Regards
Thanks for that, it does sound nice when I tap the chimers, maybe one day I'll find someone to fix it, but for now I'm afraid it goes back to being a dust collector.
It's a beautiful clock and that works! Just please don't let some hack put a quartz movement in it with a cheap speaker for a digital Westminster Chime sound chip! Far, far better to leave it as a dust collector....in my opinion anyway! :) Regards.
No worries there Bruce, I'm one of those people that likes things left as they are, probably because I'm too mean to part with any money to fix or alter things. I've got a couple of quartz clocks here anyway that never keep the correct time.