got this the other day from a private seller.He claimed that this clock has been in his family since it was new.A repair tag under the top piece bears the date of 1986,at which time the clock was "Repaired for 60,-DM". The Brasilian onyx without a chip,a ding or a dang,no blemishes at all,so are the four bevelled glasses.The plated brass parts show their age,but nothing more.The dial is beautifull,the colors fresh and full of contrast.The SS seems to be the original bronze,with contemporary blocks and fork.All blued skrews are blue,not scratched nor mangled,and the mvmt. runs after a full smooth winding and beat setting,loosing 5min in the first 24hours with ca 360° rotation. The whole beast stands about 38cm high. Ser.No. 139180
I like it.
Burkhard
Burkhard, congratulations! Here's a little story:
When you posted your new find, I thought that I recognized having documented one with a similar case a while back. Checked my database and sure enough there it was with serial number 159190 with the same case design. When I looked in my photo archive, however, it was obvious from the very colorful Brazilian onyx used for the unique pyramid-shape capital
that it was in fact the same identical case! Digging deeper, I had another look at the relatively poor quality photos I had of the movement, and realized that it was in fact the SAME clock with serial number 139180, "not" 159190. I thought to myself, "Well, we meet again!!"
My archive data for this clock was taken from an eBay auction in March 2010, so the clock has been "out of circulation" for about 5-1/2 years and happily now is your pride and joy. It also is the only one with this case design I have documented to date although surely there were more of them made.
My dating info shows your clock was made about mid-1914, not long before the advent of WWI. Les mentioned 1922, and I recall that some of my early efforts did show this serial number being after WWI. However, in the past couple of years we were able to confirm several patents granted in 1913-1914 with at least three being found on clocks with serial numbers in the 135xxx to 142xxx range, as well as some dated presentation plaques in the same range that resulted in a fairly major shift of those serial numbers from being after the war to actually being pre-WWI manufacture. This also shifted the data from end 1909 to 1913 with a higher production in those years than had been shown before. This exercise also resulted in the conclusion that JUF "did" almost completely stop making 400-Day clocks from early 1915 and almost to the end of 1918 as had been reported by Terwilliger in the Repair Guide. This shift did not change the "end date" when JUF stopped using serial numbers; that is still about the time they restructured to become Jahresuhren-Fabrik G.m.b.H. August Schatz & Söhne in first half 1923.
The only question I have is whether the No. 39 JUF 4-Ball pendulum is stamped with the patent DRGM 403658 underneath? This clock was made during the period when that patent was still valid so it "should" have the stamp.