Alabaster Annular Clock, ca. 1900
Watch
GUEST:
It was my aunt's clock. It comes from England. She told me that it was given to her on her 21st birthday, and that would have been in 1941. It lived on my grandmother's mantelpiece, and I remember it fondly. It's a functional clock. It sits in our dining room. I've had it for approximately five years. I've never seen a clock like it.
APPRAISER:
Well, it is a very unusual shape, isn't it, being dome-shaped?
GUEST:
Yeah, and it's very heavy.
APPRAISER:
It's very heavy. Do you know what it's made out of?
GUEST:
Well, I, uh... An old geologist friend of mine told me that it was onyx.
APPRAISER:
Alabaster is a little easier to carve or shape.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And as a result, from a production standpoint, it would make sense for it to be alabaster. Very unusual to have this type of what we call an annular clock to be in this format. Typically, they are in a vase form, or sometimes, the very simple ones are more of a flat, horizontal platform. I'm particularly taken by the coloring of it. The veins in the stone actually look like clouds in the sky. It also displays the time in an interesting manner. This clock, as you know, you might want to tell the people how it actually operates.
GUEST:
Well, it rotates like this. And I remember as a child never really understanding what time it was, but it was explained to me. And the markers between the numerals are in 15-minute intervals.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
And it actually, even today, it, it keeps reasonable, reasonable good time.
APPRAISER:
Yep, one of the interesting things I'd like to point out is the way that this clock winds. It winds with a key. And, of course, not having a standard face, you actually wind this clock from the top. And you would simply just turn it this way. And when it's fully wound, it would run for a full cycle of eight days. In terms of value, a clock like this would have a retail value of somewhere between $550 and $650.
GUEST:
Oh, wow.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
I'm, I'm very surprised at that.
APPRAISER:
The standard version of this, the common version of this that most people see, is a clock that's a $50 clock. So, you really have a wonderful example.
GUEST:
I'll take it home, and we'll continue to enjoy it.
APPRAISER:
Fantastic.
Appraisal Details
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