Burglar & Fire Detective Clock, ca. 1860
Watch
GUEST:
In 1992, I went into a house with a partner and this was part of his collection. We discovered soon after getting into the house that he was terminally ill.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
And I was his primary caregiver during his declining days. He willed the collection to me.
APPRAISER:
And what do you know about this clock?
GUEST:
Only what he told me. It's called a burglar and fire alarm, has several unique functions that you can see are performed by the device on top of it. If the alarm goes off, say during the winter months, before it's light, you mount a kitchen match here, cock this back, when the alarm goes off, the match is scraped along this rough surface, a little wire here flips the cap off of this small kerosene lamp and the match lights the lamp so you get up to light.
APPRAISER:
Correct.
GUEST:
The burglar and fire alarm functions, there's a little wire here that you attach a thread to. That thread is attached, say, to a door, and the door is opened, this falls down, the alarm goes off. If the thread is burned, the tension is released, this goes down, and the alarm goes off. So it has several functions.
APPRAISER:
Right. Which is interesting, and that's sort of the way it was advertised, as being the hardest-working clock in the business at the time.
GUEST:
Oh, yes.
APPRAISER:
Because it had all these functions. This was made by the Seth Thomas Clock Company, and it's primarily just a little kitchen clock, or a cottage clock. But this one's very unique, because it has this Proctor Patent device at the top that was made in Beverly, Massachusetts. And these are exceedingly rare clocks, and what's even more rare about this clock is its condition. It's perfect. It's one of the best I've seen.
GUEST:
That's nice to hear.
APPRAISER:
It has this beautiful rosewood case, and this appears to be American rosewood. It has this wonderful gilding, it has the "S" and the "T" for Seth Thomas, the clock company that made it. And if you open up the door, it has beautiful labels. It has Proctor's Patent Burglar and Fire-Detective Clock, and then another label inside of the Seth Thomas label. And it even has... a great label on the back that's perfectly intact, and really almost a hundred percent there. But these clocks, I say they're exceedingly rare. Why do you think they're exceedingly rare?
GUEST:
They probably burned up in fires. (laughing)
APPRAISER:
Exactly. I think they started more fires than they probably warned people about.
GUEST:
Could be.
APPRAISER:
A very interesting clock, and exceedingly rare, but I could just picture this match being thrown across the room and hitting some drapes and lighting the house on fire. If you were to have this clock without this mechanism at the top, it would be a $300 clock. Because it has this, and because it's rare-- we don't see many of them at all-- this would sell in a retail situation for $2,500.
GUEST:
Oh, great, great. I had no idea. I-I-I couldn't have... I didn't have a clue.
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