Hello Chasity,
Thank you for sending in this standing floor clock to mearto.com for an appraisal. I shall try to do that for you today.
TITLE:
Stained oak and Lindenwood, two train link chain double weight driven, eight-day time and striking, Hall clock (modern name for the grandfather clock), unsigned, made in Germany, circa 1930s.
DESCRIPTION:
Case: 84” tall, this is a cherrywood stained oak open well Hall clock with shallow break-arch pediment above a break-arch concentric tympanum over the arched wooden dial surround in the hood section. The glazed brass bezel is flanked by Ionic designed pillar capitals with Fleur-de-Lys at the top of a vertically fluted flat pilaster to either side of the dial. An overhung horizontal cornice transitions down to the open well middle section of the case. The backboard in this middle portion has a recessed concentric rectilinear panel, while there are two Ionic capped multi-ringed pillars, free standing, to either side of the façade of the case. A pentagonal moulding sits at the base of the trunk between the base of each pillar, al resting on a rectangular cabinet below which for some reason is not pictured. It may come down to the floor or be elevated on feet.
Dial: Round chaste brass dial with enameled Arabic hours in round cartouche form with foliate half hour markers between each cartouche. There is a closed minute ring with Arabic markers placed every five minutes. There are ebonized steel Louis XVIth style hands. Small chaste brass foliate markings adorn the circumference of the dial while the textured dial center has the sun with its rays displayed in the dial center. The dial is unsigned.
Movement: Seen only from the side, this is rectangular thin brass late movement with tubular brass pillars pinned at the front plate and screwed together at the rear plate.
There is an anchor recoil escapement, cut steel pinions, fly wheel and two sprocket gears to take up the link chain holding the two weights (not seen). The weights power the movement for eight days and cause striking on the coiled metal Cathedral gong on the backboard on the hour and half hour. A pendulum hangs from the suspension spring at the upper end of the back plate and swings in the case below.
Condition: Case – A fairly typical late Art Deco German hall clock in very good condition but of a simple design. Dial – In very good condition and is only hurt by the fact that it is not signed. Movement – Again in very good condition although the pendulum has to be moved forward to fit into the fork like crutch to operate properly.
HISTORY OF THE HALL CLOCK:
Walter Durfee of Rhode Island is generally considered to be the "Father of the Modern Grandfather Clock". He developed the concept of the large Hall clock with a glass waist door through which one could see the descent of brass weights and the arc of the long pendulum. On a trip to England in 1886 he met J. Harrington had just patented a chiming mechanism utilizing heavy brass tubes (now silvered brass), which also were visible through the glass door in the waist of the clock. At the same time J.J. Elliot of London was making movements and dials for these overly large hall clocks. Durfee arranged to have Elliot make the movements, and Harrington the tubular chimes for his tallcase clocks. Most cases housed either 5 or 9 tubes. Although quite expensive they were an instant hit with the public in North America. This business association continued well into the 1900's. During the 1890s it was Durfee who held the sole rights to the distribution of Elliott movements and Harrington tubular chimes. That contract expired at the start of the 20thcentury. Numerous firms began to spring up offering some version of this product. In the U.S. the Herschede Clock Company of Cincinnati was the largest dealer in that country. Companies could make their own movements or acquire them from clock movement companies in England or in Germany. In addition, high end retail stores such as Tiffany in N.Y.C., Caldwell in Philadelphia and Black Starr and Frost of Boston sold many of these clocks by ordering the case from a furniture maker and the movement from a clock company. By 1910 it became evident that factories in Germany could produce a quality product at a cheaper price than the factories in America or England. Many of these German movements were imported and used in these hall clocks, and most commonly there were no identifying markings on the German brass movements. The Hall clock was first introduced in America during the last quarter of the 19th century by the Connecticut clock companies who used machine made factory methods using interchangeable parts. Ansonia introduced its version of an "antique" oak FLOOR clock with brass trim in 1886. It was still pictured in their catalog of 1914. In Germany the finest of these Hall clocks were produced by Furtwangen Und Sohne in the Black Forest region. These were in extremely ornate cases with a multitude of brass trim. Some had three weights which indicated the clock would strike the time, the hour and play musical chimes every fifteen minutes. The style lost much of the trim over time, and it was replaced by wooden turnings of the columns and reeding or machine-made fluting in parts of the column One such type of Hall clock was called an OPENWELL HALL CLOCK because the waist door had been removed to show the swinging pendulum and the descent of the weights. These clocks originally were made near the Black Forest region of German by two of the best firms in that country: Furtwangler and Lenzkirch. By the Art deco era other firms, e.g. Junghans, Mauthe, Urgos and Hermle and Kieninger made such models just before World War II.
COMPARABLES:
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/70924552_german-oak-carved-tall-case-clock (sold in 2019 for $250)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/55328114_art-nouveau-open-well-oak-tall-case-clock (sold in 2017 for $130)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/41069317_german-oak-open-well-2-weight-grandfather-clock (sold for $350 in 2015)
https://www.barnebys.com/realized-prices/lot/an-oak-open-well-tall-case-floor-clock-schlenker-and-EMj4Q1Qun_ (sold for $425 in 2016)
PRICING:
I believe that the fair market value of your German made Hall clock would be in the range of $150-$200 in today’s market. The retail price would be at least twice that or more. The design of your example is simple yet quite pleasing and suggests the influence of the Arts & crafts Period at the turn of the 20th century.
Thank you for sending in this clock to mearto.com for an appraisal. I hope this information is helpful to you.
My best,
David