Antique Clock Repair: Assessing Condition

Video Transcript

"As with virtually all kinds of antiques, condition makes a big difference in clock collecting. We saw before, when we were talking about calendar clocks, I had the same model clock side by side, one with the original grain painting, one with the refinished case, one with the original gilding on the columns, one with gold painted column capitols, and the difference of value of those two was one to three. One was twenty-one hundred dollars, one was seven hundred dollars, basically for the same clock. So, condition makes a big issue. I have to confess that I'm not the best one for assessing condition. I make my decisions quickly, that looks like a nice clock, I love it, I'll take it, and I often overlook very serious things. So, you really have to train yourself, almost have that mental checklist to look at things. We talked about the movement, of course, you want to look into that, make sure there's one in there, that there isn't some battery unit has been put in instead. So, that's important, but just overall cosmetic condition too, because those are often the harder things to fix. The movements, someone like me can probably help you with. Broken, missing parts, that's a whole another story, unless you have very expensive craftsmen available to work on your clock, and you wouldn't want to in the case where the clock isn't that valuable. This is an example of one where, looks great. It's a porcelain clock. Those always scare me anyway. Easy to chip and break. I believe this was one where I loved it, bought it, and on the later realized that the top crest piece that'd been broken off and reglued. You'd, obviously a pretty clear line there, any serious collector or even regular retail customer probably will notice that, and probably either, either turn aside from it, or try to get the price reduced dramatically because it's not a, a perfect mint specimen. The same token I'm not in favor of, clocks really looking terrible in order to preserve their original finish, I think that's an affront to the maker, but you don't want to pay too much for a clock that's not in original condition."