Can anyone identify this mantle clock?

[hugha]

I bought this one because it looked like a rather nice 30s or 40s deco-style British chimer. Now I'm not so sure as the arbors are Size 9 key, which is smaller than most British ones.

Other interesting features are the recessed catch handle in the back door, very small chime cam, many parts of stainless or electro-plated steel, chime-silent lever above 12 (with just a crude "poker" to stop fly), little shield covering wheel that drives chime fly, "arrow" shape pierced in hands, specially made recess in base for longish pendulum (no pendulum or rod).

All thoughts and comments will be most welcome.

 

[zepernick]

The rack certainly looks like the one from Petersen below, as illustrated in an old Flume trade volume. You might want to see if the plate and in-between-plate measurements fit, as well.

The firm in its various realisations (e.g. Gebrüder P., Karl P., Walter's off-shoot -- see the _Lexikon_) evidently supplied movements to the trade, as well.

Is there something, quite small, right below the "6"?

Regards,
Zep

 

[J. A. Olson]

That's one of those strange "BRITISH MADE" clocks. One was marked "FONTENOY" once, though.

 

[Scottie-TX]

Looks pretty recent to me.

 

[zepernick]

The (German) Flume catalogue provided an ID system for movements for which they had as of 1957 e.g. springs available (for German clockmakers). There's no indication when a movement was first made, etc.

 

[hugha]

Thanks Zep - most helpful and I'm sure we have nailed it. All the plate measurements agree.

The mark below the 6 is nothing significant - just some of the silvering has scraped off.

Anyone care to take a guess at manufacture date?

Cheers
Hugh

The rack certainly looks like the one from Petersen below, as illustrated in an old Flume trade volume. You might want to see if the plate and in-between-plate measurements fit, as well.

The firm in its various realisations (e.g. Gebrüder P., Karl P., Walter's off-shoot -- see the _Lexikon_) evidently supplied movements to the trade, as well.

Is there something, quite small, right below the "6"?

Regards,
Zep

 

[hugha]

Pardon my ignorance, but what/where is the _Lexikon_?

Hugh

The rack certainly looks like the one from Petersen below, as illustrated in an old Flume trade volume. You might want to see if the plate and in-between-plate measurements fit, as well.

The firm in its various realisations (e.g. Gebrüder P., Karl P., Walter's off-shoot -- see the _Lexikon_) evidently supplied movements to the trade, as well.

Is there something, quite small, right below the "6"?

Regards,
Zep

 

[zepernick]

Greetings Hugh --

The _Lexikon_ is short (sorry) for the standard reference to the German clockmaking industry, Hans-Heinrich Schmid's (2005) _Lexikon der Deutschen Uhrenindustrie 1850-1980_. It was reviewed in the October 2005 _NAWCC Bulletin_. A version of this review is posted on the Horological Books section of this Message Board:

http://www.nawcc-mb.com/bbv2/bbBoard.cgi?a=viewthread;fid=13;gtid=220591;gpid=220596#gpid22059

As to the approximate date, I don't have a good feel for British cases, and will gladly defer to our British colleagues. On the one hand, yours resembles those from the late 1930s as illustrated for instance in Shenton & Shenton's volume _Collectable Clocks 1840-1940_. On the other, if it turned out to be from the postwar era it wouldn't surprise me.

Regards,
Zep

 

[J. A. Olson]

Sorry to "revive" this thread, but, I think I found your mystery maker for this clock. Here are pics from a recent auction for a clock with a near identical mechanism.... http://i467.photobucket.com/albums/rr35/500atfan/167187590_o.jpg
http://i467.photobucket.com/albums/rr35/500atfan/167187562_o.jpg

 

[zepernick]

And who or what is Fortenoy in the "of clocks" sense?

 

[J. A. Olson]

They seemed to have been a FRENCH BASED company that built clocks. According to a very crude looking wall clock, their later logo was a Bell with Wings. And it's Fontenoy. Fortenoy was supoosed to be some kind of odd chime sequence.

http://i467.photobucket.com/albums/rr35/500atfan/f2f4_1_sbl.jpg

 

[zepernick]

Thank you CCF! Had also seen the Googled refs. But was wondering why this firm would have been using Petersen-made movements.

There was a French connection (if hazy) with Walter Petersen before WWII. Although I didn't see Petersen listed among the clockmaking firms in Schwenningen which the French (it was in their "Zone") were dismantling after the Second War, and up to '49.

Regards,
Zep