Antique Clocks: Gallery Clocks

Series Summary

When talking about collecting and collectibles, grandfather clocks are inevitably mentioned, often along with some type of antique collectible mantle clock. There are a great many antique clocks which appeal to the clock-collecting enthusiast. But what to look for when buying an antique clock? What exactly is a marine lever clock? What is a carriage clock? And will a Snoopy clock be worth a fortune some day? Great questions! In order to learn how to collect antique clocks and what to look for, watch this free video from an antique clock expert. In this free video series, the clock expert discusses several kinds of antique clock styles, including alarm clocks, calendar clocks, double-side clocks, carriage clocks and various other kinds of collectible clocks. Find out how to determine the value of these clocks and what qualities make them desirable to collectors.

Video Transcript

"Large round wall clocks are usually called gallery clocks. They're named after the place where they hung in the old days, on the front of the gallery or balcony in a church or in a town hall. What we're looking at here is a Willard gallery clock. This is a beautiful gilded case, early 1800's gallery clock. You probably wont find one of these to collect but it's good to know about them. Again gilded, this one was in a church in Boston I believe. It's now in the Willard House Clock Museum that we mentioned earlier and that we'll talk a little bit more later about with museum clocks. There are many of these gallery clocks even large reproduction ones now that look as if they came from some old place in France perhaps. But they have little battery movements on the back. But people find them quite attractive and useful for decorating. So you'll see modern gallery clocks too that don't have to cost very much. Other fun ones, this happens to be an electric one, large electric wall clock. You'll see it's from the Postal Telegraph Company that was in business in the early 1920's. This one is even illuminated. You see the lights inside and you see the kind of high style deco styling of these veins on the side here. The postal telegraph clock was a competitor to another company which also got a time signal once an hour from a centralized telegraph office in order to keep these clocks synchronized on time all the time."