Antique Clocks: Novelty Clocks

Video Transcript

"A huge and actually affordable category of clock collecting are what are called novelty clocks. All types of inexpensive clocks were made to appeal to people with all kinds of interests. We see our clock here. I had to buy that one since I also own a nice German Shepard. So this is a novelty clock by Deluxe Company. They were a Connecticut company that made just hundreds of styles of novelty clocks. Perhaps the ones that appeal to collectors even more are these little pendulets. You can see I have the original box even in this one. These were made to look kind of like cuckoo clocks that we'll talk about later but the little pendulum swings on the wall and the little bird goes back and forth. And there's a whole series of those. So you could collect pendulets for some years and perhaps not even find them all. Perhaps more typical in front there is a gold case novelty clock. Those remain, again, in all types of shapes and sizes trying to look like more expensive French or American caste metal clocks or figural clocks. Often with not very good movements inside. I usually am reluctant to offer these for sale because it's really tough to keep some of these cheap old movements running. So don't always expect those to work if you're going to collect them. But they're pretty and they look good lined up on a shelf. Perhaps the most exciting type, even though this doesn't have a clock with it, some of these early ones actually did, so in addition to the telling the time you'd hear your little bird not only moving his beak and wiggling his tail but singing you song. There are early versions of these made in France particularly. You could have a whole tree full of these birds all singing along and initiated in their singing by the clock that was built into the very elaborate cage as well."