Yesterday I got my hardcover copy of "The Horolovar Collection" by Terwilliger.It's a nice read,the photos of the rare clocks are verry interesting;I didn't know before that this book existed.As it is a limited edition and numbered,I´d like to know how many copies are distributed in our comunity.I've learned that some are even signed by C.Terwilliger;not mine. So here I go: I have No.316,unsigned. Burkhard
It might help to know what edition and published year it is. Looks like the 1991 10th edition is what is currently available. These are commonly sold by a number of book sources and clock suppliers. It's a very common clock book. Stan EDIT: Sorry, I just realized you were not talking about the Repair Guide.
Burkhard, Good job finding a copy. I've only seen a few for sale. You'll find a lot of the information it contains was reprinted in the Repair Guide, along with most of the illustrations, but there is some new stuff. I think the original sales price in 1962 was $10. I have No. 656, unsigned. I saw a signed copy for sale some time ago on ebay. The curious thing about it was it was not numbered. Eric
A little known tidbit is that the first fifty copies were leather bound and presented by Terwilliger to his best friends and customers. Terwilliger autographed each one and presented it by name to the recipient. I've seen only one of these and would dearly love to find another for sale. My copy is No. 645. One of my "long term" projects is to complete an errata booklet to provide updated info on what has been discovered since "The Horolovar Collection" was published. I've compiled notes and have noted that less than 24 of the 143 pages do not have any errors when compared to today's knowledge. It's easy to find the errors in identification especially now that we know of clocks made by Gustav Becker (cylinder escapement), L. Furtwängler Söhne, Hanau Uhrenfabrik, Steinheuer & Rabe, Wendes Metzger, Carl Bauer, Andreas Huber, W. Würth & Co, Ph. Hauck, Wintermantel, Schlenker & Posner that weren't identified or even known to have made 400-Day clocks at the time Terwilliger wrote the book. Many of these are in the Horolovar Collection, mis-identified as some other maker. There are a lot of dating errors as well and other information that is known but not yet properly published. Needless to say it will be a couple of years or more before this all comes about.
is it known what happened to that collection? Is it still together or distributed over the whole community of collectors? Burkhard
etmb61 - I get a warning from McAfee when attempting to go to your linked site. Some kind of risk attached to it.
I acquired book # 847 today. It was a library copy in another life, but it is in good condition. I was able to buy the clock #19 in the book from Dave Cooper, who bought it from Bob Terwilliger, Charles's son. Dave did a beautiful job of restoring it. I feel very lucky to have piece of Charles's collection. It runs very nicely
Hi Eric, The serial number is 23866. The picture of #19 shows a small, protruding diagonal dent on the very bottom of the base, below the left column. My clock has the same dent. -Jeff
Jeff, Thanks for the update. The reason I asked was your clock is shown the Repair Guide, number 61 on page 39 (10th ed.). The associate plate number 1423 has serial number 16326, but I can now see that goes with clock 17 from the collection which is number 56 in the guide. I should have known from the suspension bracket. Your clock was made by Würth and would originally have had a disk pendulum. I own number 23662 shown here Late model Wurth with its original pendulum. Eric
Is it possible to locate the disc for this clock? I have a feeling I should keep the clock as pictured in the Terwilliger books.
Sure it's possible to find a disc, but probably not the disc. I've seen a few loose Würth pendulums for sale online in recent years. The problem is they made a relatively small number of clocks and a good portion of those used the "Crown" pendulum, number 20 in the guide. Kienzle used disc pendulums made very similar to those used by Würth. One of those would probably be easier to find. The differences are hard to spot if you don't know what you're looking for. Because it's a historical piece, I might keep it as it is, but I really like to find original parts when I can. The Huber ball pendulum you have (primarily used with Huber clocks sold by Badische) is one of the worst designs made. My understanding is that for some time knowledge of Würth clocks all but disappeared. Terwilliger obviously could not identify them, but he did the best with the information available at the time. Würth made good quality clocks that, I believe, deserve preservation in as original condition as possible (parts not patina). Eric
Hi Eric, Thank you for the info. Is there a way to determine when the clock was made? How many clocks were made? How many are still around? Any guess at it's value? Thanks, Jeff
Jeff, Based on the serial number your clock was made in 1910. Würth's entire production was around 24000 clocks and, as I recall, the company did not continue after sometime in 1911. As for how many still exist there's no real way to tell. In the 8 years I've been interested in 400 day clocks, I've recorded data on 152 clocks by Würth, mostly from a variety of online sources. That's a really small percentage. I figure since brass was a war material a lot of old brass clocks were probably made into shell casings. We don't discuss values in these forums. It's all subjective anyway. It's worth exactly what someone else is willing to pay for it. If you looked at the link I posted to my clock I think you can get the idea. I paid about $145 for it complete and original. Eric
