Это т.н. " школьные" часы, 1880-1920 гг. Датировать их довольно сложно: обычно принимают во внимание тип механизма, вид аксессуаров, тип дерева - шпона, дизайн украшений, разметку циферблата и тп, короче, куча нюансов. Самое простое - по цифрам на циферблате: арабские цифры говорят о более позднем годе, начиная примерно с 1900-го. Очень помогает в датировке если сохранилась оригинальная бумажная инструкция внутри корпуса. В интертнете есть масса фото таких часов, к примеру, напишите в Google "Waterbury Drop Octagon Schoolhouse Wall clock" (без ковычек) и можно будет, без преувеличения, пару дней смотреть. Вот, к примеру, неплохие фото:
http://southwestspiritantiques.com/dynapage/IP1017.htm
Вот полная история фабрики, сожалею, но на английском:
A History of the Waterbury Clock Company (1857 – 1942)
The Waterbury Clock Company, founded in March 5, 1857, began as a venture into the lucrative clock market by the ambitious Benedict & Burnham Corporation, heretofore the “B&B Corp.” Being a company specializing in the production of brass, and with clock movements being made of brass, the B&B Corp. made its first attempt at utilizing its goods for the measurement of time by investing heavily in the business of a clockmaker named Chauncey Jerome with the understanding that Jerome would buy brass from no other brass company. Thus began a short cooperation that ended with Jerome striking out upon his own business with $75,000 of B&B’s brass, which they sold to Jerome at a profit. Having only begun to satisfy the needs of impatient people waiting for, and trying to catch trains, B&B began their own clock company: The Waterbury Clock Company!
It started in an old mill, very near to the main factory of the B&B Corp. Strapped for good clockmakers, the corporation decided to honor Jerome’s brother, Noble Jerome, with the title “chief foreman of movement production.” So began the famous clock making business in Waterbury, CT on March 5, 1857 as a company of the Benedict & Burnham Corporation. The Waterbury Clock Company was described in its time by Chauncey Jerome in his autobiography as being a company of famous “first citizens of that place” including a senator and one of the richest men in the country. He also spoke
of his brother, the chief movement mechanic, as being “as good a brass clock maker as can be found.” A great grief struck the Company in 1861, however, when Noble Jerome was killed by a falling balustrade while strolling in the merry month of May. Silus B. Terry replaced Noble as master clockmaker. Silus B. Terry, apprenticed by his father Eli Terry, later founded the Terry Clock Company with his sons. Incidentally, Eli Terry also apprenticed the famous clock maker Seth Thomas who created his own company when Silus B. was but two years old.
After the Civil War, in which most of Waterbury’s employees participated on the Union side, the Company erected two large case-building shops. They were hardly used, though, before both caught fire and caused $25,000 damage, equaling about $270,000 in 2002 currency. Half of that was safely insured, and another case shop was built upon the same site. From here, the Waterbury Clock Company kept getting larger and more flushed with employees. In 1867, the first known catalogue of Waterbury clocks was
released by the New York Sales Agency. Waterbury clocks occupied only a small fraction of the myriad of companies represented by the catalogue but that was soon to change. The company continued to grow and by 1875, had opened several offices in Chicago and San Francisco. By 1881, their own catalogue contained 94 of their own clocks on 122 pages. Ten years later they had grown to a full 175 pages offering 304 models of their own design.
Until this point, Waterbury had been offering chiefly commonplace clocks. Their fame was truly made, however, when Waterbury, in 1892, began to build watches for the Ingersoll Company, who sold them as dollar watch alternatives to the expensive watches of the time. These became known as Ingersoll Watches, and were produced by an offshoot of the Waterbury Clock Company, the Waterbury Watch Company. This became an extremely profitable venture for both parties, yet when Ingersoll went bankrupt due to several mistakes involving the purchase of “defunct” watch companies,
Waterbury lost its most valuable customer. During the time in which Waterbury was producing the Ingersoll-Waterbury watch, clock production held, but did not increase much. A few new clocks were added, but their catalogue was very much standard as it always had been.
Waterbury continued on its way, eventually creating the “Mickey Mouse clock” and the “Timex”, though by 1942 it had already ceased to be its own corporation, having been bought out by Norwegian investors and moved to Middlebury, CT. Now, the Waterbury Clock Company lives on in its legacy of vintage antique timepieces and in the Timex Corporation which it birthed.
17.04.2010, 14:34
Думаю, чо это и значат, использовались преимущественно в школах и детских дошкольных учреждениях ))))
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