Gustav Becker of Not Gustav Becker

[RonR]

Occassionally I have a clock customer come in my shop with an unmarked movement and they say something like "I bought this clock and the guy I bought it from told me it was made by Gustav Becker."
In fact one such clock was the one that I posted on 25 Sept this year under the title "Help ID This Movement". The owner even told me that her now divorsed husband had researched the clock many years ago and had determined that it was a Becker. I did not think that it was a typical German movement. Ansomnia found a very similar movement by a maker named Halbkram of Vieanna. See the thread of 25 Sept.

I thought that Becker marked all of his movements with his trademark, but I don't really know for certain. So did he, or not. Is it possible that a nice unmarked movement could be a Becker? Or is this just a way for a less than honest clock sales person to try to get a higher price for a clock they are trying to sell?

 

[jmclaugh]

Ron,
I have seen a lot of people on eBay claim unmarked clocks are by Becker and I treat them all as unidentified however nice the movement looks.

AFAIK he did stamp his movements so if it ain't stamped you can't IMO prove it is a Becker, though others like John Hubby will know more.

 

[RonR]

I have also seen that happen on Ebay and many of the times I have know without any doubt that the clock was not a Becker. It annoyes me that unknowning people are bidding on things and being misled as to what they are.

 

[Scottie-TX]

It does please me however that ones stamped BECKER and certainly are not Becker -
Are gone;
Have disappeared from eBay.

 

[jmclaugh]

Scottie, stamped but not pucker is even worse. Btw I am very tempted to give your avatar a pet and some nosh, oh and is he trying to get the cat to let him use the headphones.

 

[John Hubby]

RonR, to the best of my knowledge the only clocks made by Becker that were not stamped as such include:

1) A few cylinder escapement 400-Day clocks made in the 1870's. These have the Becker serial number but no logo or name stamp; however are absolutely identical to later clocks of the same design that do have the Becker logo.

2) A number of 400-Day clocks made under contract to Anton Harder between early 1880 and May 1882 (estimated between 300 to 500). Some of these, including at least two wall models, are stamped with Becker logos either on the movement or on the case. Most of these clocks were only stamped with a serial number.

3) A batch of about 1500 400-Day clocks that were made for Andreas Huber in the early 1920's. A few of these have no markings, but most have the GB serial number and the Huber logo as well.

I have not seen any unmarked vienna style or other gravity pendulum movements that could be identified as made by Becker. The Becker train layouts and a number of other design features were unique and not replicated by other makers. I'm not going to say that Becker didn't make unmarked movements but so far none have been documented.

The clocks Scotty is referring to are a number of 3-train grand sonnerie movements and complete clocks that were stamped as being by Becker but absolutely not made by Becker. They were copies of a clock made by Becker in their Braunau factory, problem was they all had the same serial number among other things.

John Hubby
>>>>

 

[zepernick]

"They were copies of a clock made by Becker in their Braunau factory, problem was they all had the same serial number among other things."

Does anyone happen to know the serial number they used (just out of curiosity)?

 

[RonR]

John,
Thanks for the confirmation of what I thought I knew.
Ron

 

[John Hubby]

"They were copies of a clock made by Becker in their Braunau factory, problem was they all had the same serial number among other things."

Does anyone happen to know the serial number they used (just out of curiosity)?

Zep, the number I recorded from several offerings on eBay was 196856. The third digit was partially covered in all the photos so I'm not 100% sure that it was a 6. Could have been a "0" or something else. This would date the clock (if it were authentic) to mid-1897.

John Hubby
>>>>