I don't have a lot of questions, this one has been really easy to find info on. So I'm just sharing 'cuz I'm dying to show it to you guys!
I saw this in an antique store yesterday and fell head-over-heels in love with it. It's a large (33") column and splat style of clock. It is pre-1837 (that being the last year that maker Chauncy Boardman used wooden clockwork) but this clock was upgraded with brass clockwork in about the 1840s. You can see the original winding holes for the wooden clockwork are covered over. The original label is still mostly intact, and the maker's name and location are there. He was born in 1789 and was in business at the Bristol Connecticut location from 1810 until 1850.
Yes, it runs! The clock has this wonderfully deep, hollow "tock, tock, tock" sound to it and best of all, it does not have a coil type chime that goes "bong-bong-bong", but a striking bell! It sounds very much like a trolley bell and it sounds out the hours only, not the quarter-hours.
Believe it or not, this ol' clock still keeps very good time. It has a 30 hour movement, so it has to be wound each day. There are large weights inside and instead of the mechanism getting tighter as you wind, all you are doing is raising the weights and you know you are done winding when they bump the top!
The face is original to the clock (lots of others out there for comparison) and all the gold and floral decorations on the face are hand-painted.
I paid $200 for it and looking at what others sold for I feel it was a very fair price coming from a retail antique shop. It's my first antique clock and I'm thrilled to pieces with it.
