Antique Clocks: Aaron Willard

Video Transcript

"Another member of the Willard family was Aaron. He could even be better known because he made many more clocks. He was really the businessman...business expert of the family. He ended up with a factory, or manufactory as it was called, in Roxbury near Boston, to...to try to do business in the Boston area. He made many more of those Roxbury style cases, as well as banjo clocks and other styles of clocks. His name appears on many more clocks than Simon. This is an example of a Aaron Willard banjo clock dial, you see his name there, Aaron Willard, Boston. He was, again, one of the brothers. I should've mentioned that, that Simon and Aaron and others were brothers who learned clock making in Grafton. This is a...of a heavy iron dial. You want to make sure if you're looking at these, you don't see it on some shiny aluminum or steel, 'cause you'll start to....to wonder about it. But it raises the subject of...of legitimacy, because Willard clocks bring such a premium when you're buying them, there are many more Willard clocks out there that aren't by the Willards than...than are by the Willards. So if you're going to spend a lot of money on a banjo clock or on a Willard clock, you should make sure that you're sure of what you're buying. My illustration here, here's "Aaron Willard, Boston". These types of labels, if you're lucky, are pasted to the inside of the door of long case clocks. And he was telling you the directions on how to...how to set it up, and how to care for it. Very often, these labels are called Paul Revere, or Revere labels, because there's been the...turns out to be mythology over the years that these labels were printed by Paul Revere. And even to this day, you'll find Willard tall case clocks and they refer to the Paul Revere label inside. As it turns out, the labels that Paul Revere printed for the Willards were different than this. But if we want to call 'em a Paul Revere label, probably nobody's going to argue with you."