My First E. Howard Clock - A discussion

[moonraker]

Well, after many years I have finally added an E. Howard clock to my collection. The reason I am posting, aside from showing off the clock, is to try and garner comments about this movement and when this clock may have been produced. Having very little knowledge of E Howard or catalogs, I thought I would throw it on the forum.
The clock is a #89 with a #1 movement. Notice the winding arbor ratchet mounted to the outside of the movement rather than integrated into the arbor. This allows easy let-down of the weight but can trip a bit too easily dropping it so you have to be careful. The pallets have clear jewels mounted in them that I assume are saphires. The escape wheel arbors are mounted in ruby's although the rear one was removed some time back and replaced with metal. The front one still seems to work great although it has a few chips and cracks.
The pendulum and weight are also heavy. Although the clock will run on a 5.5 lb weight, the weight that came with it is 9 1/4 lbs. The bob is very heavy at 5 lbs worth of brass and an odd adjustment. The pulley is large and heavy as well and looks a bit like the astro pulleys.
I have no idea if any of these are original to the case or not. Some of the stampings on the movement parts match and some do not. The case has a 1 or "I", the lock is a 6 (or 9), the movement studs and mount have a 5 on them, while the escapement bridge has a 7 on it.
I just have not owned an E Howard clock and these features appear to be out of the norm of the ones I have seen. Perhaps a good discussion is in order to explain what these features mean and when the clock was made. Any guesses?

 

[TJ Cornish]

This is a beautiful clock. I don’t have anything to add with regard to your questions, but theres no doubt it’s a great piece.

I have an 1820’s French astro regulator that has jewels for pallets and pivots and some have been lost. I enquired on having custom ones made. Unfortunately the minimum run was something on the order of $1000 for 5 jewels of the same dimensions. It is theoretically possible to drill your own jewels, but I was not confident that I would be able to make the surface finish good enough to not destroy the pivot, so I re-made a metal bushing.

 

[moonraker]

This is a beautiful clock. I don’t have anything to add with regard to your questions, but theres no doubt it’s a great piece.

I have an 1820’s French astro regulator that has jewels for pallets and pivots and some have been lost. I enquired on having custom ones made. Unfortunately the minimum run was something on the order of $1000 for 5 jewels of the same dimensions. It is theoretically possible to drill your own jewels, but I was not confident that I would be able to make the surface finish good enough to not destroy the pivot, so I re-made a metal bushing.

Thanks for the comments TJ. Your clock sounds cool as well. I had to repair a broken suspension spring on this one along with cleaning/ servicing the clock. It's up and running very well, keeping very good time. For now, I am leaving the jewels as is.
I have scoured a few of the E Howard company records but it's hard to narrow anything down since I do not have a window of years this clock may have been produced. The back of the case has plugs in some holes that seems to indicate it once had other things internally installed in it. The upper cornice type case trim should give a better indication perhaps to somebody familiar more with E Howard clocks on possible date ranges. It seems to have spent at least a few years of its life in NYC (Manhattan).
I plan to get more info on these clocks but I was hoping an E Howard expert would come forward to help me. Are there any out there that have better knowledge of E Howard clocks?

Thanks,
- RJ

 

[the 3rd dwarve]

The nickel plated, skeletonized movement with screws holding the front plate to the posts implies to me it was made post 1920.

Are there any holes or a slot in the bottom of the case? Does it run for eight days on a winding?

D`

 

[moonraker]

No holes or slot in the bottom of the case (see pic) but there are plugged holes in the back of the case. With the weight hanging below the movement, it ran 7 days. With the weight on the side using hooks already in place, it has run 8 days and it's got some left in it. I hope this helps.

- RJ

 

[Douglas Romero]

RJ,

I believe you have possibly a married movement and case or a watchman's 89 with the programing devices removed. The 19th and early 20th century E. Howard 89s had both watchman types and a 89 type (not watchman's) with iron weight that resided down the middle of the case and was covered with a board. Not expressing it precisely but that is the concept.

I think your case as described with the holes in it likely held other device for either small sub electrified devices for clock timing or programing and may have paper readout when a watchman made his routes for timing events.The hole surrounding the seconds bit is indicative of this watchman 89. This bit and back made contact so these events likely in a manufacturing type firm could be read.

I owned this E. Howard 89 Watchman's from some years ago. It was a very heavy oak paneled case in excellent condition, but look closely at pix 2 and 4 you can see where the whole for the internal works for timing parts were once installed. Also odd that mine had the iron weight on the right side. Why there? So it did not interfere with the internal timing mechanisms that were removed.

PLEASE SEE PIX AND LINK BELOW AND THANKS TO THE 2 SITES OTHER THAN MINE I COPIED PICTURES FROM.
TO ADMIN: IF COPYRIGHT ISSUE, PLEASE REMOVE THEM.


.

Below picture of an E Howard 89 from "Clock Doc" website to give an idea of master clock 89 with its components

Below is a link of a really super nice E. Howard 89 from Fontaine's auction 2019. I wish I had purchased it, and hope that OK with Fontaine's that I display and attribute this link with pix to them. This is the example of the 89 I mention that has the weight in the middle of case and was not a watchman's 89.

I THINK THIS IS THE BEST OF DIFFERENT MODEL 89s.

• Lot - E. Howard & Co. No. 89 Oak Wall Regulator

So I guess it just means there are different types of E. Howard 89's and yours is one of them.

Enjoy it. Doug

 

[moonraker]

Thanks Doug. I appreciate the comments. That is a beautiful clock! I am learning so much about E Howard clocks the past few months. A marriage is likely as none of the numbers seem to match and I assume they would have all matched from the factory? This one certainly seems to be unique, marriage or not. I was hoping for some markings on the big wheel but there were none.

The case is large at 60" tall, 23" wide and almost 10" deep. It has beautiful solid quartersawn oak. It takes quite a bit of muscle and grunting to get it up on the wall for sure. I am assuming a Watchman or Programming case would have been deeper than a normal 89 to accommodate internal electrical devices. One of these previous mountings (the largest) seemed to be installed just below the movement in the center, meaning the weight would have been mounted to the side at some point. I think this is similar to yours.

Whether these components all left the factory in this case might be less likely. What date range they left may be hard to determine as well but is appears as though other members may be able to help with that. I may never know for sure but I try anyway.

I certainly do love the clock though. It's a monster!

- RJ