Welcome to the Blogosphere Bill!

Our friend Bill Maier has recently started his own blog to document his impressive collection of rare, antique "Vienna" Regulator Timepieces. Here's a particularly stellar example from his collection:

Gilded bronze skeletonized laterndluhr by Fertbauer, C. 1810. Overall height 67". Seconds beating, knife edge suspension riding on a gimbal. The gimbal is held by two L shaped brackets through the front plate of the movement, typical Fertbauer design, sweep seconds with sub dials of minutes, hours, and date.

Stay tuned for more input from this great collection!

[via ViennaRegulators.org]

Bahnhäusle

The Bahnhäusle (sometimes "Bahnwächterhäusle") design has been an incredibly popular design since 1850. Friedrich Eisenlohr of Furtwangen, Germany first submitted the design as part of a contest for the Grand Duchy of Baden. His inspiration was a railroad guard's house overrun by vines and leaves.

Black Forest Apostolic Clock

Restoration Finished! A Rare Emilian Wehrle Musical Shelf Flute Clock

We just finished the muscial restoration on this rare Black Forest Clock. This piece was made by Emilian Wehrle in Furtwangen C. 1880. To find a musical shelf clock by Emilian Wehrle of this size and quality is nearly impossible.
This example is an 8-day, three-train (Time, Strike, and Music) timepiece. This is the largest movement that Emilian Wehrle made. The music train is a two-tune, 9-pipe example.... on the hour the clock stikes the hour on a large gong... followed by a tune on the wood pipes.


The case is fantastic, and one of Wehrle's best... lots of live, full-relief animals... the two deer flank the trumpeter doors. When the music is playing, the large doors open and two 4" flute players step forward.



To see more rare Antique Black Forest Clocks you can check out our online museum at http://www.blackforestclocks.org/




Contact me if you have one like it!

Justin J. Miller

A Rare Black Forest Clock Collection Located!

Over the past weekend I acquired a collection of 24 rare and antique Black Forest Clocks. The clocks have been in storage for over a decade. I was thrilled to be able to locate so many choice pieces and add them to our collection in a single transaction.


This collection includes many high-quality 8-day shelf cuckoos, several by Johann Baptist Beha.

A 5" C.1880 Hunter cuckoo with huge 8" 5 tune music box. Early cast brass pinned plate movement.

A Black Forest Trumpeter

A unique Black Forest Muscial piece

A GHS Apostle Clock

A GHS Monk Automaton

Many of these clocks are documented in the book Black Forest Clocks by Rick Ortenburger. (see sidebar for a link)

Please stay tuned for detailed posts of these Antique Black Forest Pieces! And check our private museum.

Best,

Justin J. Miller

www.blackforestclocks.org

The Restoration of a Black Forest Automaton

With the help of a good friend, we were able to track down a clock that has been on our want list for many years. Christmas has came early to our private museum Sorry Santa!

This clock had been in the same collection in the UK for over 50 years, until making its way to Black Forest USA. This Black Forest Automaton is one of the hardest of all the complex BF automa clocks to find, with only a small handful in existance. He was made C.1870 in Schwarzwald, it was made for the English market.

This post will focus on our conservation efforts to bring him back to its original beauty.
When he arrived to us, he came with nearly 140 years of grime, wax and smoke build up. The figure was very dark, much of the original color seemed to be lost. We brought him to a renound art conservator, who very carfuly cleaned years of grime from the figure. The original finish was in fantastic condition, we opted to do NO TOUCH UP, but to leave him 100% original.
After the cleaning was done, a new clear varnish was applied to protect it for another centry. We could not be more pleased with the outcome!

We have attached a you tube video of the clock in action! For more detailed photos, or to see other clocks in our private museum check us out at blackforestclocks.org

Related posts: Beer Drinkers, Automata, Dumpling Eaters, and more Beer Drinkers.

Beer Drinker

There is a long tradition of Beer Drinking automata in the Black Forest clock world. Certainly, there is some cultural significance to beer in Southern Germany. It may come as no surprise that beer is featured heavily in art and crafts from that region.

I recently found this great automaton on YouTube.

This one is interesting because it actually features a tube and pump of liquid being poured and swallowed by the mechanical figure.



There are also several new clocks, available today that feature a drinking figure, both in cuckoo clocks, and large mechanical figurines.





Stay tuned for a forthcoming post from Justin and his new prize: an Antique Black Forest King Beer Drinking Automaton.

Related Posts: Automata, Beer Drinkers and Dumpling Eaters

A Special Musical Clock by Emilian Wehrle

Fall is here, and as the weather cools we start to spend more time indoors. During the cold months we really pick up steam focusing on our collection of Black Forest clocks.Today as I was doing some "house keeping" dusting the collection... I thought of sharing this wonderful clock we have with you.

This fantastic clock has been in our care for many years.

Made C. 1874 this Singing Bird Clock (Singvogeluhr) by Emilian Wehrle of Furtwangen... is as impressive today as the day it was made.

The fully feathered bird is 6.5 inches from beak to tail. It is fully automated with movements in his beak, head, and tail.

Perched on the top of the clock on a carved vase of fruit and leaves, it is clearly visible and looks alive.

The carvings on this clock are all done in walnut, and the style of the case is very unique.

This clock utilizes a robust brass plate movement, with large double pumping bellow system mounted above the clock works (very similar to Wehrle's Trumpeter and Flute Clocks.)

The clock movement generates it own air pressure and by opening and closing a valve, air is moved through a large flute with a plunger. A cam wheel on the back operates the valve and the plunger to reproduce the sound of the song bird while controlling the bird and the Automation.

The beak runs in perfect sequence with the large song and boy does this bird look and sound alive!

This clock is featured in Emilian Wehrle's 1874 Catalog as No. 1 (see illustration). Originally, it cost of 180 Gold Marks in 1874. Just to put this into perspective, a very nice Beha cuckoo could be had for 25 marks.

Very few of these Singing Bird Clocks were made, even fewer survived. Making them almost impossible to locate today.

I am not aware of a museum worldwide that has a example of a Em. Wehrle Singing Bird Clock, although there are a few in private collections.

This unique clock was also published in the 2008 edition of Schwarzwalduhren, by Berthold Schaaf (The authoritative text on Black Forest Clocks, see sidebar for a list of other recommended reading and resources.)


Best,

Justin J. Miller

blackforestclocks.org

For more information on Singing Bird or Whistling Automata:

Article, Whistling Clock Peddler, Singing Birds in a Cage

...and here's a video of a modern "slide whistle" mechanism Justin describes above:

Carved Vienna Regulator

Here's an interesting piece. It's another Vienna Regulator with a very lovely carved case. The case is carved is a rare hardwood, possibly mahogany.















The weight doesn't match. It's got a Jugendstil-style weight and the pattern doesn't quite match the bob and case. I've been reading about diy chemical etching and will one day try to make a weight shell that matches.

If you like this clock, be sure to check out our Amerling regulator with it's fine "Bird's-Eye" Maple case.

"Vienna" Regulators have often been the standard for fine mechanical wall clocks. Their elegant proportions, and high-quality mechanisms create what is for many the epitome of accurate and stylish mechanical wall clocks.

An Interesting English Longcase

One of the things that really interests us (besides beautiful new clock designs) are really old clocks.

This is a piece that was saved from an old estate in the suburbs of Washington D.C. We found parts of the clock laying around the house and in the front yard, and we are going to take some time to clean it and restore it to working order.

Here are some hasty snapshots:

As you can see, it has a very elegant shallow case with a long door in the front. This style is typical of Tall Case or Long Case clocks of England and America in the 18th and early 19th Centuries. This particular example has an excellent oak case, finished in the traditional "Dark Oak" of English fashion.

You can't see it in these pictures, but with careful inspection we found the name of the maker on the dial "Samuel Buxton, Colchester" which we traced back to the earliest possible date of 1773 in England. The dial painter was Wilkes and Company. Because of the style of the dial and case, this clock was most likely made around 1780.

This fine clock even has some animation in the dial. You can see the interesting hand painting of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, with all the animals surrounding them - including the Serpent. Eve even moves her arm with the Fruit of Knowledge, as if to tempt poor Adam!

While we were researching this clock, we came across some other beautiful examples of the same era. Do you have one? Tell us about it! Let's hear from you in the comments.

BTW, if you like this wood finish, be sure to check out our "Handel" wall clock by Sternreiter. This finish is sometimes called "dark oak," or "antique oak," or "English oak" wood finish. It has a nice strong look that is somewhat more formal than our American oak finishes.

Fremion - Update

A few months ago, I did a post on an antique French gallery clock.



We have turned up some new research on the clock. Our contact in France (that goes by the handle laprade) was able to contact the president of the association The Friends of Old Issoudun. Apparently, the president has a Comptoise clock with the Fremion name as well. They found old postcards at least as old as 1910 where you can see the market square, including a watchmaker "Fremion." It could still be seen there as late as 1930.

In 1927 there were 7 watchmakers and jewelers in Issoudun. By 1936, Fremion was gone, but there was still a jeweler/clock shop there under a different name until 1960, when the whole block was destroyed.





I couldn't find the actual postcards online that they talk about. These above are some random old postcards from Issoudun that I found here. If there are any postcard collectors out there, I'd love to hear if you can find these cards!

Orchestrion Hall, Baltimore

A few days ago, my Twitter followers may be been slightly mystified by my Tweets about finding hidden treasures in Baltimore.



I had the inestimable pleasure of seeing a private collection of clocks, mechanical musical instruments, old fans, lamps, and more... all very rare and very interesting.

The tower clock collection was particularly impressive. The house was fitted with several tower clock dials on the outside. I've gone down that street many years and never looked up to notice them. There is even a dragon outside that strikes a bell with his tail. On the inside, there were some large tower clock movements (like the one pictured above) with slots cut in the floor below them so that the pendulum could swing in the room below.

I did a reblog post a few weeks ago from a Steampunk site about old tower clock towers being converted into apartments - but those places didn't have clocks in them.





There were several tower clocks, most with 3-legged gravity escapements. The whole house seemed to tick away, as if the collector were living inside a giant engine room.




...That's just the tower clocks, in addition there are Winterhalter u. Hoffmeier tubular chimes, regulator master clocks, and Egyptian Revival clocks aplenty...

The place isn't called Orchestrion Hall for nothing. The collector is a worldwide authority on mechanical organ restoration, particularly the very rare and very excellent Welte orchestrions.




He has more mechanical musical instruments too, including a very loud band organ.



His shop is in the basement below, and he uses all turn-of-the-century, belt-driven machines. When I jokingly asked where the steam engine was he pointed to an original early electric motor, and around the corner (in the basement) there was a HUGE single-cylinder Diesel engine.

The collection also includes fans...




This one has a light bulb that's used only for impedance, to slow down the fan.

I wish I had more pictures. This place was a treasure trove of fascinating stuff!

Thanks to Arcadian Clock for some of the pictures above.

cuckoo

This is an antique cuckoo bird with moving wings... See our Gothic cuckoo and Long Bahnhäusle for new collectible clocks with this feature.

Biedermeier Vienna Regulator

This is a early Biedermeier Vienna Regulator C. 1835 is a recent addition to the collection.

6 light fruit wood case. One piece white glass dial with case engine turned bezel. 8 day 1 weight movement. 38" H 11" W.

The previous owner purchased the clock in Austria in the late 1940's and brought it to the western United States.

The clock is in mint untouched condition, from the bone handled winding crank to the delicate hand cut pulley.

French Gallery Clock

Here's a nice little clock. It has a classic style with a nice reverse-painted glass dial. This clock is known as a "Gallery Clock." It's French and is circa 1890.















As you can see the clock is marked "Fremion, Issoudun"