An American carved walnut eight-day floor-standing giant longcase clock - 'Regulator No. 8'

JAMES WOOD & CO., NEW YORK AND GEORGE A. JONES & CO., NEW YORK. CIRCA 1878

Details

An American carved walnut eight-day floor-standing giant longcase clock - 'Regulator No. 8'
James Wood & Co., New York and George A. Jones & Co., New York. Circa 1878
The case with an elaborately carved pediment fronted by a carved deer head with displayed horns beneath the carved head of Diana (the Huntress) and flanked by two carved lions' heads, the trunk with carved trusses to the angles with incised gilt line decoration, well figured walnut panelled backboard, the plinth on gadroon-carved feet with central panel applied with a carved ferret's head, the silvered engraved dial of regulator lay-out with blued steel hands, the massive movement with thick brass plates, all wheels with six crossings, Graham type dead beat escapement, the triple-jar pendulum held within an elaborate steel frame finely etched with foliage and signed James Wood & Co. 587 Broadway New York, the beatscale further engraved George A. Jones & Co. No. 5 Courtlandt St. New York
10 ft. 3 in. (307 cm.) high

Lot Essay

The Ansonia Clock Company was founded in 1851 by Anson C. Phelps who owned the Ansonia Brass Co. which was a part of the Phelps Dodge Co. of New Haven, Connecticut. Ansonia clocks were well made and proved popular. The company's sales plan was very aggressive, on the premise that the more clocks it sold the more profit it could make for the rolled brass company. It prospered greatly in the third quarter of the 19th century and in 1878 Ansonia acquired a factory site in Brooklyn, New York and transferred its entire operation there. The very next year disaster struck and a fire destroyed the entire plant but the factory was immediately rebuilt and the company was back in production by 1880. It operated successfully until active production ceased in about 1930.
The pendulum is signed James Wood & Co. New York and the beatscale is signed George A. Jones & Co. No. 5 Courtlandt St. New York. Jones had taken on Woods as a business partner then sold his business to him prior to Ansonia acquiring all of their company assets towards the end of 1880. Interestingly the Ansonia catalogue of the period shows their Regulator No. 8 selling for the large sum of $950; the next most expensive regulator the company made was the No. 11 with (mercury pendulum) which sold for $282.00

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