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I bought this Forestville 8 day ogee shelf clock at a clock show last week. I love these old American weight-driven shelf clocks, and hope to have time to fix this one up someday. What attracted me to the clock is the William B. Fenn reverse painted tablet in the door. It has the saying “By Industry We Thrive” and a beehive with flowers around it. Reference 3 shows the stencil used to paint the saying, and also shows a stencil with the behive, flowers, and the borders.

The case has curved veneer on the outside front edge and the door, and is sometimes referred to as an OOG case. The case is 30 inches tall and 16 3/4 inches wide. The dial is painted wood, and the minute hand is 3 1/2 inches long (center to tip).

The bottom of the label says J. C. brown, S. B. Smith and C. Goodrich at bottom, dating it to 1846 – 1847. At the very bottom is . . . Press of Elihu Geer, State Street, Hartford. It doesn’t give a street address (such as 26 or 1) which might have narrowed the date down further.

See more photos.

The movement looks rough, but should clean up well. It is Forestville’s lyre 8-day movement, type 2.12 from the chart on pp. 72 – 73 of reference 1.

It looks like a mouse lived in the clock for a while! The right pulley hole has been enlarged, the pulley is gone, the top of the right movement mounting rail has been chewed away, and the door has been chewed away inside below the lower glass.

For historical information on Forestville clocks, see reference 1. For an updated chart of the chronology of J. C. Brown’s clock companies, see reference 2, page 64. The chart gives the names of the principals of the various companies, allowing the date of the clock to be narrowed down based on the names at the bottom of the label. An earlier version of the chart appears in reference 1, as well as in the June 1987 NAWCC Bulletin. It was complied by H. Bryan Rogers.

References

1) Jonathan Clark Brown and the Forestville Manufacturing Company, Kenneth D. Roberts and Snowden Taylor, Ph. D., Ken Roberts publishing Co., Fitzwilliam, NH 03447, 1988, ISBN 0-913602-64-7.

2) Forestville Clockmakers, Kenneth D. Roberts and Snowden Taylor, Ph. D., Ken Roberts publishing Co., Fitzwilliam, NH 03447, 1992, ISBN 0-913602-67-1, page 64.

3) Clock Decorating Stencils of Mid-19th Century Connecticut, American Clock and Watch Museum, Bristol, Connecticut, 1984, ISBN 0-930446-17-4.

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I recently repaired the movement of this Seth Thomas 8-day OG shelf clock.

Before repair, the clock would run for several minutes and then stop. While running, it would go in and out of beat (the ticking would sometimes be even and sometimes uneven).

The movement was taken apart and cleaned. The major problem was that some of the escape wheel teeth were non-uniform. I used the Webster escape wheel tooth straightener to ensure that all the teeth were at the same angle. The wheel was mounted in the lathe and the teeth bought to a uniform height, then the burrs were removed. The pallets were polished, the worn pinion wires in the escape wheel pinion were replaced, the pivots polished, and bushings installed in the worn pivot holes.

The following video shows the escapement action before and after repair:

The following video shows the movement in the case and shows the hour striking:

It is possible that the movement is not original to the case. We suspect this for two reasons:

• The pendulum bob is quite low in the case;
• The end of the center arbor touches the glass when the door is closed.

The movement is labeled “Plymouth” which means that it was made in 1865 or earlier when the town where Seth Thomas was located had the name “Plymouth Hollow”. It 1865 the town name was changed to Thomaston to honor Mr. Thomas. The case label says “Thomaston” so this could be a transition clock made around 1865, or it could be a later case with a older movement. The reverse painted glass is not original to the case, it appears to be a New Haven multicolored glass.

The weights are replacements, weighing as follows:

• Time weight: 8 pounds 1 ounce
• Strike weight: 6 pounds 9 ounces

Repair job 5064.

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I blogged about this clock shortly after receiving it in April. At that time, it had an incorrect picture in the door. Lee Davis painted a reproduction on old glass for me. I am extremely pleased with this clock. The case veneer needs some repair, but I can enjoy it as it is for now.

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Connecticut type American antique clocks are known for being over-powered. The one-day clocks often have more than 3 times the least amount of power necessary to run the clock.

One of my Chauncey Jerome 30 hour OG clocks was missing its weights when I bought it, and so I experimented with weights. I found that the time train of the clock would run reliably on 1 pound! (Normally these clocks have about 3 to 3.5 pounds on the time side). The strike weight usually weighs around 2.5 to 3 pounds.

I recently repaired an early Seth Thomas 30 hour Ogee. The weights that were with the clock when I received it are 2 pounds 9 ounces and 2 pounds 10 ounces. They look old and match each other in appearance, but there is no way to know if they are original to the clock. The strike sounds fine with this amount of weight, and the pendulum and escapement take an excellent motion. Here is a video showing the escapement in operation. Note the generous amount of overswing or supplementary arc (how much further the verge moves after an escape wheel tooth lands on one of the pallets):

This clock will run for a short time with a 7 ounce weight on the time side, with almost no overswing. There is noticeable overswing with 9.8 ounces of weight, and with 1 pound weight the overswing is small, but enough. With 1 pound, 12 ounces, the overswing is quite good. Of course, a clock movement must be in excellent condition to run with this little weight.

The striking sounds a little slow, but acceptable, with 1 pound 12 ounces of weight. The striking will run with 1 pound of weight, but it sounds WAY too slow.

I plan to wind this clock daily (it is on a workbench at my clock shop), and will run it with a 1 pound time weight and a 1 pound 12 ounce strike weight, to reduce wear in the movement.

Update

From June  30, 2009 to February 10, 2010, it ran continuously on the 9.8 ounce time weight. Then, it would occasionally stop around 10 minutes before the hour (when the strike levers are lifting). On February 13, I started running the clock with a 15.6 ounce (440 gram) weight.

9-21-11: It was stalling as the time approached the hour, just beforre warning. I am not running it with the original weights: 2 pounds 9 ounces for the striking, and 2 pounds 10 ounces for the time.

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This 30 hour OG is the most recent addition to my collection (I don’t buy very many clocks these days, but I couldn’t resist this one). This clock was made about 1845, the fourth year that Seth Thomas made brass movement OG clocks. It has the early features described on my ClockHistory.com web site, and the unusual feature of a brass nameplate on the dial.

Here is a slideshow of photos:

• Ogee case, non-original lower glass, made in Plymouth Hollow, glasses held with wood strips. Height 26″, width 15 11/16″, depth 4 5/16″;
• Dial: metal, two rings drawn around time track, dots for minute marks;
• Early features of dial: tapered numerals 3, 4 and 8, small winding holes (8.2 mm);
• Unusual feature of dial: brass nameplate with S. THOMAS PLYMOUTH CONN U S A;
• Label: printed by Elihu Geer, Hartford, Connecticut, no address given. This dates it to 1842 – 1845;
• Movement: type 1.241, early.

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