Hello Nancy,
Thank you for sending in your family Hall clock (also known as a grandfather clock) to mearto for an appraisal. I will do my very best to help you with it today.
TITLE:
Stained oak, three weight, 8-day time, strike and quarterly chiming Hall clock (also known as a modern grandfather clock), Model 610-178, with imported German (Franz Hermle) movement, made and sold by the Howard Miller Clock Company, Zeeland, Michigan circa 1983.
DESCRIPTION:
CASE – Approximately 80" x 14" x 20" stained solid oak Hall clock with serpentine split pediment design with a central plinth supporting a wooden ball and spire finial. There is a shaped burled walnut panel in the tympanum concentric with the shape of the pediment. An arched cornice sits above the arched glazed trunk door. The door is flanked by full length, chamfered flat pilasters with segmented wooden-cuffed turnings. The sides of the case have rectilinear glass panels. The short horizontal wooden base contains an applied rectilinear panel above a broad stepped molding with the case sitting flat to the floor. .
DIAL - A brass alloy, arched dial with Arabic hours in round cartouche form with closed minute ring, silvered corner spandrels and brass filigree dial center. There are steel skeletonized Chippendale-style hands and three apertures for winding the weights. The lunette has a revolving moon and two hemispheres. . .
MOVEMENT - NOT SHOWN, but likely a German made (Franz Hermle & Son) three train, triple weight driven movement with solid brass plates, of eight day duration with quarterly Westminster chiming and full chime and strike on the hour. The solid brass plate movement strikes via a series of hammers, on a series of metal rods inside the case. Three polished brass canister weights power the movement while a gridiron pendulum rod with an applied ornate lyre brass pendulum bob swings inside the case. . .
Condition: Several of the brass Arabic numerals have come off the dial but the family has them with the clock case. The clock appears to be in very fine condition. I make the assumption it remains fully functional today. The case is very fine as is the dial and movement. . .
HISTORICAL;
Born in 1905, Howard Miller followed in his father’s footsteps in the skilled craft of clockmaking. Hailing from the famed clockmaking area of the Black Forest region of Germany, Howard brought his clockmaking skills to the United States and founded his own clock company in Zeeland, Michigan in 1926 at the early age of just 21 years. From the beginning Howard Miller developed a focus on quality and innovation in his clocks. The company’s first products were a line of chiming mantel and wall clocks. While the first clocks were made in traditional American designs, after 1933 they introduced original clocks which won awards for their design. Many of these early clocks are prized by clock collectors and are displayed in clock museums due to the innovation of their design. In the 1960’s the company expanded its product line by introducing floor clocks that most of us call grandfather clocks. (To be precise the correct term for these clocks since their inception in the 1880s, is ‘Hall’ clock) In 1964, they built a new factory: since then, the company has become not only the largest clock company in the United States but the largest producer of grandfather clocks in the world. Howard Miller died in 1995 at the age of 90 and the company that bears his name continues to manufacture quality clocks.
PRICING:
Hall clocks were made and are still being made by the tens of thousands and going back to the 1980s by the hundreds of thousands. Their price has fallen significantly since your clock was purchased at a retail price of $1750 back in the early 1980s. I think that the form of your case and the condition of the wood is quite fine, and would fit into any contemporary setting nicely. One of the problems is that it is not an antique, nor is it old enough to be called vintage.
When I look at the comparable marketplace, at auction, for your type of Howard Miller grandfather clock, given its fine condition and good proportions I believe it would sell at auction today in the $650-$750 price range (fair market value). The retail price today would be much higher and likely close to what you paid in the 1980s, about $1800-$2000 (if sold in a retail store).
I hope I have been of help to you today, and again, thank you for using our service.
My best,
David