Antique Clock Collecting: Clockmaker Listings

Video Transcript

"Of course there are many reference books about clocks and clock makers, and the technology of it all. But there's a particular category worthy of special attention. These are books that, mostly, are just lists of hundreds or thousands of clock makers with whatever information was available about that person. In Ameri...for American clocks, another Tran Duy Ly book. Chris Bailey, who I mentioned, is one of the authors of this book. And this book is just page after page, alphabetical listings, of any clock and watch maker that any of them could turn up after years of research in America. So even obscure ones, as well as the more important names, you could look them up. You could find the dates that they know that these people worked. Find out who their business partners are. When they were in and out of business. So, it's a tremendous resource, particularly for more obscure makers that you may not find on the internet or in the major listings of the big companies. If you're more in to European clocks, then again we'll talk about some of those more a little bit later, but certainly, this is a important listing, too, for all over the world. This has American makers as well, but just all the Swiss, German, English, French. Tiny print, tiny dates indicated, but if you end up with a European clock, and there were, of course, thousands of makers, particularly in England. Every village seemed to have a clock maker. They would...the researchers years ago would visit court houses and all types of registries to find who worked as clock makers. Graveyards to see if those were listed on the gravestones. So any information they could find, they compiled and made it a lot easier for us today to know who's clock we have and when it was made. Finally, we'll also look at Britten's book, another classic. Probably more than half of the book is devoted to just listings of clock makers in England, particularly in England, showing when they worked, where the worked. So you don't have to collect in the dark in clock collecting. Most likely, if you have a clock with a name on it, you'll be able to find out more about that clock."