Hello James,
It is my pleasure to help you today with this wonderful wall mounted, American made, pinwheel Jeweler’s regulator, inherited from your mother. Thank you for choosing mearto.com for the appraisal.
Title:
Brass and Invar steel, single weight driven, time only, Jeweler’s Regulator with pinwheel escapement, made by Barry L. Palum, Rochester, New York circa 1975. Accompanied by the original paperwork, brochure advertisement, and original winding crank.
DESCRIPTION:
This is a single brass canister weight (11” & 32 pounds) driven, time only, Jeweler’s wall regulator. There is no casing except that the movement posts are extended behind the back plate and connect directly, i.e. all four pillar extensions, into a metal backplate which is firmly attached to a wooden wall mounting. . .
Dial: A brass bezel surrounds this 12” diameter white porcelain dial with Roman hours, closed minute ring, subsidiary seconds @12 and steel skeletonized 'Tulip' hands, a trademark of the work of B. Palum. The dial is unsigned. . .
Movement: A large rectilinear solid brass plate movement connected with four tubular brass pillars. The pillars extend forward to connect with the back of the dial. There is a pinwheel escapement present, cut steel pinions, steel arbors with only four brass gears attached. The movement is jeweled with rubies, uses extremely heavy plates, has polished and hardened replaceable pivots, a grooved main wheel and the winding arbor pivots are protected by roller bearings and the movement has maintaining power (the movement keeps running when being wound) common to most precision regulators. Essentially, this is the Colonial Manufacturing Companies number 1070 movement, made for them by Mr. Palum between 1972 and 1977, rather than Colonial's usual Swiss made pinwheel movement. The pendulum hangs from a heavy suspension at the upper end of the back plate. Below, this rod becomes a temperature compensating gridiron pendulum with alternating rods of Invar steel and brass. It has a decorative skeletonized lyre attachment placed just above the large brass bob at the bottom. The heavy brass weight is powerful enough to drive a triple compounded pulley system and this results in a duration of running time of eight days. . .
Condition: The dial, movement, pendulum and weight are all in excellent condition.
Some experts consider this movement to be the “finest American jeweler’s pinwheel regulator movement ever made”. This is a fine ‘contemporary’ example of a clock that could match or beat almost any of the vintage and antique Jewelers regulators being used in such stores today, but at a lower cost than it is to find and buy such early examples.
HISTORICAL:
Barry Palum was truly a legitimate clockmaker and is so noted in the December 1977 issue of the Bulletin of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, in an the article titled, “Contemporary Clockmaking: an overview”. Page 573 contains the following: “Finally, there is Barry Palum of Rochester, New York, who recently (1977) started to produce jeweled pin-wheel escapement movements”. On August 01, 1974, United States Patent 4095409 was registered by Palum, Barry L. (Rochester, NY). The patent was granted for a chiming mechanism of a clock. His abstract of the patent claimed is a follows: “A chiming clock having tube chimes for sounding the quarter hours and striking the hours contains a striking, quarter chiming and timing mechanism wherein the music barrel or rotary element of the chiming train may be located substantially in any position with respect to the chimes by reason of the use of cords which are extended over pulleys so as to define the desired path for translation of the rotary movement of the music barrel or striking train rotary elements into percussive movement of plungers against the chimes.”
So, we obviously have found a man who is an extraordinary clockmaker. He apparently was in the Jewelry business as well since “B.L. Palum Designer Jewelry" was listed as a privately held company in Rochester, NY and was considered a Single Location business. Categorized under Precious Stones and Precious Metal Jewelry. Records show it was established in 1966 and incorporated in New York. Current estimates show this company had an annual revenue of 120865 and employs a staff of (approximately)two people.”
It was from c. 1972-1977 that there was a brief association of Mr. Barry Palum owner of Palum industries in Rochester, N.Y and the Colonial Manufacturing Company of Zeeland Michigan. This relationship combined a contemporary American clockmaker of fine and precision clock movements with one of the great long recognized American heirloom furniture companies that made many fine Hall clocks, etc.
Therefore, the history of this artisan is clear and it is likely that this American gentleman made perhaps the finest of any American made pinwheel regulator movement in the history of this country.
Pricing this piece is somewhat difficult. None have been sold in recent years. I would compare this type of precision wall clock to the work of similar contemporary clockmakers. For instance, when Barry Palum was working, artisans such as Foster Campos, Ted Burleigh and Elmer Stennes were making Willard Patent-style wall clocks (collectors call them banjo clocks). Of course, these have beautiful ornamental cases, but I think the tradeoff would be the casing that each built being offset by the quality of the movement that Palum crafted. Therefore, I would place a fair market value for your Palum wall Regulator between $2500 and $3500. retail values for this clock would be at least twice as high.
I hope this has been of some help to you.
My best,
David