Antique Clock

Back in the late 1970’s or so, Youssef, Sharif and I were driving around in the West End of St. Louis when we came across an estate sale in Portland Place. There the houses are large and majestic, but had seen better days…at least in the 1970’s and early 80’s. The owner of this house was an antique collector/dealer, a man in his late 30’s, not my idea of a collector.

The collector had a number of clocks, and out of the blue Youssef asked how much he wanted for one in particular. The guy said $500. Youssef offered him, I think, half of what the man was asking -  $250. The man, being no fool, jumped at the offer and the deal was done. I was speechless with astonishment. The collector said it was an Ansonia Clock, and that only about 20 of them were made around 1887.  Yeah, I thought, says who?

Although I was in a state of denial, we took it to our home in University City and hung it above our couch. It tended to run slow, but it had a charming chime striking the hours and dinging once for the half hour.

When we moved to Egypt in 1991, we put it in storage. Returning ten years later, we got it out, but didn’t do much with it in our new home in Columbia. First, I hung it in the den, but fearing it might fall on someone’s head took it down. It lay around long enough for its chains to come to pieces and after a while I threw them away. Then I set the body of the clock on the mantel of the fireplace downstairs for atmosphere.

This summer, we took it to Bob, a clock repairman here in Columbia. He was reassuringly impressed. Bob confirmed that it was an Ansonia (whatever that means), and the copy write date (1887) is stamped inside the clock. He thought that the cabinet, the pendulum and the weights were all original. I thought, “Too bad I was so cavalier with the chains.”  He oiled the innards and installed new chains. It is now hanging on our wall again, charming us with its chimes and losing about five minutes every 24 hours.