Here's a project that took me over 5 years to complete. I bought this clock off eBay several years ago, the seller wasn't sure what he had (he said it was a Seth Thomas model copied after an Ansonia crystal palace) and even though I wasn't sure either, I bought it anyway (lucky me).

Turns out that it was an Ansonia Excelsior case that someone had discard the original movement, gong and gong base and soldered a round plate Seth Thomas movement into the back of the Ansonia bezel (and in the process, grinding off the movement mounts flush with the back of the bezel). I put it on a storage shelf and went about trying to find the parts. I started calling and emailing various people trying to find or locate the correct movement and gong. The movement is different from other Ansonia crystal palaces in that the strike lever drops down from between the plate and not thru the back of the rear plate as most round plate Ansonia and French style movements do. I must of looked at a 100 movements at Marts over the years looking for the correct movement or one I could make work.

Well, about a year ago I was on eBay and there was an Ansonia Excelsior clock in, let's say, poor condition. Several of the gilted casting and parts were missing and looked generally to be a mess, but it did have the correct movement, dial, bezel and gong. Even though I paid more for it than I wanted, it was time to get this project finished.

After disassembling everything, I sent the parts to Bill Berkowitz (I apologize for possibly not getting his name spelled correctly) for re-gilding and polishing and you see the end result.


P.S. If you every have the opportunity to re-assemble one of these Ansonia Crystal palace cases, turn it upside down with the top pointing down and re-assemble it that way. Tighten everything from the bottom and have an extra set of hands if possible. You will save yourself and hour or so trying figure out why everything is so wobbly and not matching up correctly.

Hi Derek,
That is one beautiful clock!! I know you must be extremely proud of it. Thanks for showing it.

Joe

Great Job Derek
It must feel very gratifying to finally get your gem together.I'am sure that we all envy you on owning such a wonderful clock as this(I know I do)hope that you enjoy the fruits of your labour for many years to come.

Enjoy Enjoy

Cheers Shawn

WOW!

greg

Beauty clock Derek.
I have seen some crystal regulator clocks, but can,t say as nice as yours.
I hope you look at it every day and admire the great restoration job you did on it.
Absolutely beautiful clock.
As others have said, enjoy.

Thanks to everyone for the compliments on the clock. It's great to get a project like this completed, but I think I get the biggest kick out of just finding that some little something that finishes up any project whether its the correct movement or an old pendulum bob for that little 30 hr shelf clock that came without one.

Derek,
all the praise you got is well deserved. Let me say I agree with all of the accolades. The finished results are stunning! Great rescue of a valuable vintage piece!