I thought I would post an image of the shelf clock I was fortunate enough to acquire.

It is an E.C. Brewster & Co. (E.C. Brewster, Joseph S. Ives & Charles Kirk 1839 - 1843) with a Kirk's patent cast iron back 30 hr. movement. It is probably an early Brewster & Co. clock (1839) in that it has the center post mounted embossed 12 hr count wheel which is a transition from Kirk's earlier cast iron back plate movement which was rack & snail and the small card label. This information was taken from Kenneth D. Roberts' book, The contributions of Joseph Ives, Connecticut Clock Technolgy 1810-1862, pages 242-256.

Here is am image of the movement and label. There are a couple veneer patches that have been filled with putty and colored which I will probably have redone. I'm curious about the lower tablet, it is almost totally gone but it is the original glass, should I have it redone or leave it as is? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Derek

This is always a tough question to get consensus on. I think, with the condition(or lack of) of the glass that having it redone would be the way to go. Avoid the decal route, but get an appropriate reverse painted glass. I think you would not be doing harm to the clock. You might think of putting the original glass aside with appropriate notation, and install a new glass. That way, the clock looks as it should, and no harm done. Original glass can be re-installed whenever that is deemed to be the right thing to do.

I have several clocks with the glass in various degrees of deterioration. I am very slow to take the original glass out. But I think yours has reached the point where, if it were mine, I would put an appropriate new glass in.

I agree. You do yourself no favors by having a clock that does not look good. I take the same approach to paper dial replacement. If it is legible from a reasonable distance, leave it alone. Usually only dials that have the numerals almost completely worn away get replaced. I tallked my JC Brown steeple customer out of having the dial redone because the only issues were 2 small spots (<1/2") of missing white paint, not in the time track in addition to a number of quite small chips. The time track was as near perfect as a 150 year old clock could be. Her main concern was that the "JC Brown - Forrestville" logo was too faint to read. She did replace the bottom glass as it was not original anyway having me put in an etched 'harp' design. Looked really good. I gotta get a digital camera.

Derek, great find. I vote for a pretty reverse painted glass too. It is such a nice clock and the painted glass would really set it off. JMHO

Marilyn