Ansonia Early Walnut Parlor Clock with Gilbert Movement

Here is a beautiful, almost all original Ansonia parlor clock with several interesting features, made around 1880. The walnut case is 22 1/4 inches tall, and 11 15/16 inches wide at the base.

  • Beautiful and delcate “lace curtain” design on the door glass
  • Pendulum, bell and beat scale
  • Pendulum
  • Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Co. made the movement for Ansonia)
  • Back of movement
  • Strip deadbeat escapement
  • Label on the back

See more pictures.

Features:

  • The movement was made by Gilbert but has the Ansonia name;
  • The pendulum has an automatic beat setter;
  • The escapement is deadbeat (the pallets have separate locking and impulse faces) but is the American type formed from a steel strip;
  • The door glass has a beautiful, delicate lace curtain pattern printed on it;
  • The case back has a beat scale for the pendulum;
  • The front of the backboard is covered with a reddish-brown paper for decoration.

Patent dates:

Dial pan: PAT MAR. 21 – 76 (March 21, 1876)
Movement: PATENTED OCT. 10, 1878

Printing on the label:

NOTICE
This Clock contains the Ansonia Clock Company
EIGHT-DAY
Striking Movement.
With Polished Springs, Stop Work and a Patented Arrangement
allowing the Hands to be turned backward without
injuring the Striking Part. Also
Patent Self-Adjusting Pendulum.
This Pendulum immediately adjusts itself to any position in
in which the clock is placed; therefore is is always
in perfect beat, whether the clock
stands level or not.

FACTORIES NEW YORK AND ANSONIA

I love seeing a clock in nice, original condition like this. Not perfect, but very well preserved. It doesn’t need any restoration, it is wonderful to see a clock that is close to 140 years old looking this good! The fragile dial and the pattern on the glass are intact (no one has ever tried to “clean” them). Even the cardboard beat scale is in decent condition. Unfortunately, two stopworks gears are missing. This is common, as it seems that repair shops didn’t understand them, and simply left them off the movement.

Repair job 7045. I polished the pivots, installed 13 bushings, and replaced the time mainspring with a Merritt’s Antiques orange package spring 3/4 x 0.016 x 96 inches. The original strike spring is 3/4 x 0.0186 inches and is the old type with rolled end. The original time mainspring was an old rolled end type 0.0185 inch thick that didn’t have a smooth action.

A previous repair shop has soldered the automatic beat setter so it is inoperative.



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2 comments

  1. Hello, I would love to contact the owner of this clock, I would like to document it for a publication. Please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you!

  2. So the automatic beat setter is the connection between the crutch and the escapement anchor? It’s not clear from the photographs.

    The combined great wheel and count wheel are indeed indicative of a Gilbert movement, so I was wondering if the cannon pinion or other gears were cracked. That seems to have happened in every Gilbert mantel clock I’ve seen.

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