Hello James,
Thank you for sending in this painted porcelain mantel clock to mearto.com for an appraisal.
TITLE:
Hand painted porcelain (ceramic) and decorated with polychrome colored (main color is cobalt blue with pink and ruby red flowers) paints, gilt highlights, spring driven, eight-day time and hour/half hour cathedral Gong striking, mantle clock, “Waco” model, using an imported German painted case in the style of Royal Bonn porcelain but lacks their trademark, inset with an Ansonia movement, made and sold by the Ansonia Clock Company, Brooklyn, New York, circa 1901.
DESCRIPTION:
Case: 11.75” x 10” hand paint decorated German ceramic mantel clock made specifically for Ansonia and casted with the model name in the back of the case, ‘Waco’. {Some of the paint decorated ceramic cases were made by small companies or individuals in Germany although the majority were painted by the Royal Bonn factory which marked the back of the case with their trademark red crown and shield with initials and the date 1755 with Royal Bonn German written in red.} The Waco and other models did not carry the Royal Bonn mark so we can only say that it was made in the Royal Bonn style but is unmarked as to maker.
The case is shaped with the edges suggesting floral and foliate shapes with the use of “C’ scrolls. The pediment of the case is primarily c scrolls with gilt highlights in a deep cobalt blue. The case is waisted below the dial which is flanked by curled acanthus leaves or some form of seed pod producing vegetation, all gain in cobalt blue with gilt edging. Below the dial is an irregular cameo of porcelain painted with pink, red and ruby colored roses with stems and green leaves. At the base there are curled leafy feet and an apron between the front feet undulating between concave and convex curls all in cobalt blue and gold paint. The sides of the case have a background of the same deep blue color with three cameos formed by ‘C’ scrolls which hold paintings of flowers which include green white, yellow and all shades of red. The blue rear feet have a gold pinwheel shape to them. The back of the case is left in white crazed ceramic with a round metal door held in place by two Phillips head screws (made later in the 20th century). One should be a screw and the other side should be a latch. The only marking on the back of the case is Waco, the model. The underside of the clock case is not shown, but that is not where Royal Bonn left their trademark.
Dial: A glazed brass egg and dart decorated and beveled glass bezel encloses this white enameled porcelain dial with stylized black Arabic hour chapter ring, closed bar minute track to the outside and machine stamped Victorian hands. There is a Brocot aperture above the twelve to alter the speed of the clock from the dial side. There are two problems here. (1) This model with a single section dial was usually marked with the Ansonia “A” within a square within a diamonds shaped trademark printed in the lower dial center, as pictured in Tran Duy Ly’s textbook. It is missing on this dial. (2) This type of clock was originally made with steel French Fleur-de-Lys hands, and none of the painted porcelain clocks in this particular group were made with Victorian hands. Those are two major considerations when valuing this clock.
Movement: NOT SHOWN - but should be a fenestrated brass plate movement connected by pillars with an arched cutout in the base, anchor recoil escapement, steel cut pinions, steel arbors, two steel springs which power the clock for eight days and cause striking on a cathedral gong on the hour and half hour. The pendulum is suspended from the rear of the back plate and the rear plate is cast with the name, “Ansonia Clock Company, USA, some have the trademark ‘A’ and a patent date (1881/1882), New York”.
Here is a painted Waco model, not marked royal Bonn, in wonderful original condition with correct Fleur de Lys hands and Ansonia trademark on dial which sold in 2022 for $90. SEE: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/124344420_ansonia-hand-panted-porcelain-mantle-clock
PRICING:
Most of the Royal Bonn Ansonia models will today sell in the $750-$1000 range, a good deal less than they sold for twenty years ago. In 1999, height of the clock market the Waco sold at auction for about $450. Today the Waco in very good condition, near perfect as above, tends to bring in Cobalt blue (“Cobalt Blue is the most collectable color”) about $250-$300. With the two dial problems and the lack of the trademark of the German maker and no Royal Bonn marking I would put a fair market value on this clock of $200-225. There was also an eBay example of this model in green which sold for something less than $350. People in the clock market are looking for perfection in every aspect of the clock, so a lack of trademarks by Ansonia and the German porcelain decorator are significant deductions. The stamped Victorian hands are no match for the French made fleur-de-Lys.
Thank you for choosing mearto.com for your appraisal.
My best,
David