| | Monday, August 30, 2010 |
Old E-bay searches die hard. I was killing some time and did a quick E-bay search for “gaslight clock”. The usual results for the past six months has been a bunch of neon clocks and an antique gas light clock with a buy it now price of $795.00 (if I remember right) which has been listed forever. This time I was amazed to see a poorly worded listing with hazy pictures for a beautiful antique gaslight clock: unfortunately the milk glass dial was cracked. There was also a carrying case for the thing. The name on the dial was: The Crescent Watch Case Co. Newark, New Jersey.
The starting bid was for $19.95. It had been bid up to $34.00 when I discovered the listing. The broken dial really takes value off, although it is rare to find this style clock with the dial intact. The clock was not in running condition and there was no picture of the works. I had a gut feeling to put in a bid. This way I can have a gaslight clock in two downstairs rooms of my house. I’ll bet it will be the only house in
I put in an auction snipe with a maximum bid of $61.98. The last clock of this caliber with a broken dial I followed sold for over $200.00. I was amazed to have won the auction for $39.77. That was at 8:00 p.m. on the 26th. Early Saturday morning I did an instant Pay-pal payment on the thing. It was delivered here to my house this morning at 11:30 a.m.!
You see in a lot of E-bay listings: “this merchandise comes from a smoke free house.” Boy I know why this is stated now. I opened up the cardboard box and it stunk to high heaven of cigarette smoke. It was vile; I threw away the packing materials outside immediately. That bubble wrap won’t get used again!
The clock was housed in a velvet lined case which I now have airing outside. I took the clock to my workshop to carefully dismantle the works from the fragile glass dial. One of the screws holding the works to the dial was bent which tells me the clock was probably getting wound up and too much pressure was put on the winding knob, putting strain on the milk glass dial causing it to crack.
Taking the movement off the dial I was able to tell it was a 7 jewel lever escapement movement. Unscrewing the winding knob the dust cover was able to be removed. I was tickled to see this was an American Waltham watch movement. The balance wheel moves freely and the hairspring has not been messed with. The mainspring has been wound up tight. When mainsprings dry out and get wound up tight, the friction holds spring coils together. Oil is needed to allow the coils to slide apart. This should be an easy straightforward restoration.
This makes sense now….the configuration of the screws on the dial are what Waltham used for their gas light clocks, and Waltham used blue paint for the number colour. I’ll bet the Crescent Watch Case Co just bought a bunch of these clocks and had their name put on the dial. Such a practice was common back then.
There is a special epoxy “crazy glue” just for glass. Here is where I love the internet and can’t imagine being without online access. Instead of driving to all the hardware and big box stores looking for this elusive glue … (it is not carried by HomoDepot or Blowes) I found a source on line with FREE SHIPPING! The glue will be delivered Friday!
This is the kind of deal that works out for me because I have the skill to do the restoration work needed. If I had to have this work contracted out it would not be worth restoring. I’ll be putting this project on the “back burner”. I have a fire hydrant on the way which will take top priority!
No comments:
Post a Comment