When you visit our unique museum, with its focus on clocks made and sold in Canada from the 1820s to the present time, you can also HEAR old music record players.

We have Edison music cylinder record players (operating on windup springs, with celluloid plastic BLUE AMBEROL records), including a 1920 AMBEROLA 75 floor model.  The Amberol records contained up to four minutes of music in their up-and-down grooves; the grooves were followed with a small diamond stylus linked to a diaphragm.  There were no electronics, just a metal horn inside to project the sound.  There is also a spring-driven 1920s SHERATON floor model that plays Thomas Edison's very thick, flat records dating from the late 1910s to the late 1920s.  Ask to see the volume control for the inside metal horn !

Do you remember the old 78 RPM flat shellac plastic records?  Trillions of them were pressed over many decades from the late 1890s up to 1960.  In the early years, replaceable sacrificial steel needles tracked the grooves.  Yes, that means there was a decade overlap at the end with vinyl LPs and those large-hole-in the-middle 45s that were the source of 'pop' music in the 1950s.

The 10 inch diameter 78s had up to three minutes of music and songs on each side in their side-to-side grooves - the cost was typically 50 cents to a dollar each.  The larger, 12 inch records had up to four minutes per side, and there were typically albums with sets of three or four or more of these if you enjoyed symphonies or opera.   At lower cost, Little Wonder hard plastic 78s records were produced in the millions around 1910 - they were just ten cents each, but there was music on one side only and the performers were anonymous.

One major maker of record players was the Victor Talking Machine Company in New Jersey.  Their products were imported through Montreal by their Canadian company for the Canadian market.

There is an operating ca. 1910 STERLING Disc Graphophone 78s player with outside metal horn made in the United States by the Columbia Graphophone Company.  This spring-driven model also uses steel needles and has a swivel horn that can be turned to direct the sound.

Enjoy the surprisingly impressive sound out of our top-of-the-line and very expensive 1926 CREDENZA floor model 78s record player with its folded wood horn inside and original electric motor upgrade.  The cost back then was about $400, when you could buy a FORD automobile for $600!  Of course, less expensive players were available from Victor and other makers.

The CREDENZA was made by the Victor Talking Machine Company in New Jersey (before the RCA / Victor merger in 1929).  Our example, which still uses steel needles, was sold in Ottawa at the Orme Furniture store by the Montreal-based Victor Talking Machine Company of Canada Limited that imported Victor players for the Canadian market back then. 

An early keyboard pump organ: we have a ca. 1870 George Prince & Co. brass-reeds melodeon that you are welcome to sit down and play.  Ivory keys.  Steadily pump the right hand pedal to put air into the bellows and make beautiful music.

In the 1960s the Electrohome company in Kitchener, Ontario was making 'space age' players for vinyl records based on Canadian design patents.  The plastic-dome top table model with spherical stereo speakers was called APOLLO.  It was available with or without an electric radio built in.  The floor model with the same speakers was called SATURN.  Do you remember the American moon landing in 1969?  The Apollo capsule was sent there by the massive Saturn rocket.

See the pictures below.  During your tour, ASK TO HEAR THE MAGIC!

The Canadian Clock Museum was presented with the Ontario Historical Society's 2018 President's Award at the OHS Annual General Meeting in Toronto on June 15, 2019.  Manager Allan Symons accepted this prestigious award on behalf on the museum.

Photographs of the front of the framed certificate and the testimonial on the back are included here.  This was one of fourteen awards presented that day - below is the scan of page 11 in the OHS Annual Report that lists all 2018 award winners.

Our museum was very fortunate to acquire this one-of-a-kind 'tramp art' clock in May 2019. The dimensions:  38" high, 24" wide, 9" deep.  The clock dial and spring-driven movement may have been taken from a mantel clock imported and sold by the Blackforest Clock Company in Toronto in the early 1930s.

This unique clock was made in 1934 by Harry Sykes in Welland, Ontario.  The design pays homage to Britain's King George V (1910-1935). 

Harry entered his creation in a craft competition at the 1935 Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto and he won second prize !  His success was noted in a column in the August 24, 1935 edition of the Welland Tribune newspaper.

Apparently there are 986 (!) pieces of carved old cigar boxes wood plus scores of rosettes.  The animals at the sides of the case are cast metal, not hand carved wood, which apparently cost Harry first prize in that competition.

This unique clock was on display for eighteen months through 2017 and 2018 at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico (United States).  It was part of an exhibition of tramp art objects called No Idle Hands, and was included in the massive book that documents the exhibition: No Idle Hands * The Myths & Meanings of TRAMP ART (editor L.M. Addison).  This clock is shown in Plate 111.  We have a copy in front of the clock.

Tramp Art???  There are many online resources:  "Tramp art is an art movement found throughout the world where small pieces of wood, primarily from discarded cigar boxes and shipping crates, are whittled into layers of geometric patterns having the outside edges of each layer notch carved.  The artists used simple tools such as a pocket knife to carve the recycled wood." (Clifford A. Wallach).  Many practical items, including clock cases, were created mostly by men with various backgrounds during the period from the 1870s to the 1940s.  Mr. Wallach's 2012 definitive book is called A Legacy in TRAMP ART.  This clock is honoured in his book and we have a copy in our museum's reference library.

We are pleased to acknowledge the financial assistance of David Field to be able to add this made-in-Canada clock to our unique museum's collections.

Allan Symons

Curator

LEARNING TO 'TELL' TIME (TWO FORMATS)

Many 'fun' clocks were created for very young children during the 20th century, to help them become familiar with the concept of time.  Of course the dials were analogue back then, meaning they had a minute hand and an hour hand that indicated the time on a circular dial with the Arabic numbers 1 to 12 arranged sequentially in a circle.

For older children, mechanical time-teaching clocks were available, either free standing or built into books.  Some provided both the analogue time (hands) and its digital equivalent.  See the colourful 'wise owl' ANSWER CLOCK with the digital time under its eyelids that could be opened by pressing on a button.  Visitors occasionally remember having that one at home or at school.

Then later in the century, when computer voice chips became available, battery-operated time teaching clocks were produced.  These had both an analogue dial with moveable hands and a digital readout.  There were two options:  the time was read out through the speaker when the hands were turned to a new position, OR the typically girl's voice would ask the child to rotate the MINUTE hand (the HOUR hand follows) to a new time.  If the new setting was correct, there was positive feedback to the child; if incorrect, the child was encouraged to try again.

Our museum has built a collection of interesting examples of the various styles, including three voice-chip teaching clocks.  Pictures are provided below.  We continue to look for new additions.

Check our separate Gallery called ANIMATED ALARM CLOCKS - those full-function, spring-driven, animated alarm clocks were clearly made for children by several companies during the mid 20th century.  Today of course it is adults who collect them!

ALARM CLOCKS FOR BLIND and DEAF USERS

The first factory for Westclox (the Western Clock Company) outside the United States was set up in Peterborough, Ontario around 1920 to produce windup alarm clocks for the growing Canadian market.  The two major models starting in 1908 were the Big Ben (named after the largest bell at Westminster in London, England) and the slightly later, smaller Baby Ben.

TOUCH FOR THE TIME  As early as the mid 1930s the company started to modify some of the regular windup Baby Bens by leaving off the glass (and later plastic) dial cover and adding metal hour markers that could be felt with the fingers.  The quarter-hour markers were pointed cones; flat ‘nail heads’ were located at each five minute position.  Westclox called them BRAILLE alarm clocks, which were available for people with poor eyesight.  Fingers could identify the position of the minute and hour hands and their positions relative to the hour markers.  The exposed dials show the wear expected after years of use.

The museum has Braille examples for most of the Baby Ben design periods.  Pictures are shown below.  Production numbers were much lower than for the regular version, and so they are rarer to find today.  There was also a flip-cover Braille wristwatch – the CNIB may still sell these today.  Of course, modern equivalents have ‘talking time’ that is based on push button, battery-operated, voice chip circuits.

A FLASHING LIGHT TO WAKE YOU UP  There were two styles of the Westclox MOONBEAM model electric alarm clock for people whose hearing was impaired.  The first was a rounded-end, Catalin plastic case model (see below) that was produced from the late 1940s to the late 1950s.  Several dial versions were made over that time period.  Apparently butterscotch-colour cases are the most collectable today - the colour change is thought to be caused by aging of the original white / ivory Catalin plastic.

The design was modernized to a rectangular shape for the 1960s and was available with chocolate brown and ivory coloured plastic cases.  At least five different dials are known.  Note that if you slept through the several minutes of the MOONBEAM’s flashing light, a loud electric buzzer would then be sure to wake you, and everyone else, up!

The museum has had visitors who were deaf.  Several years ago a couple noted on my clipboard that they had ordered a battery-backup version of the earlier style now available from the L.L.Bean catalogue.  Other visitors have remembered using one of these silent alarm clocks when they had to get up early to go work for a very early morning shift (for example, nurses and truck drivers).  When you became familiar with it, the flashing light would wake you up but not the rest of their family.

OPTIONS TODAY  An online search in late 2018 turns up many options today for portable and bedside Braille alarm clocks, including models that will shake your bed!  And for deaf people there are wrist and bed vibrating alarm clocks.

Below are pictures of the many early examples in our museum's collection of these special function alam clocks.

CANADIAN GENERAL ELECTRIC (Toronto)

The American parent company:  Henry Warren in the United States invented the self-starting synchronous motor in 1916 (patented 1918).  His Warren Clock Company in Ashland, Massachusetts, initially produced battery-driven clocks.  It was renamed the Warren Telechron Company in 1926 and began to make synchronous electric clocks.  The separate General Electric company was a silent partner from the beginning, but the General Electric name began to appear on dials only around 1931.

GE took controlling interest in 1943, and the clock company was known as Telechron from 1946 to 1951.  Production of electric clocks declined by the 1960s because of the introduction of cordless battery clocks.

(from the book ELECTRIFYING TIME: Telechron & G.E. Clocks, 1925-1955, Jim Linz, Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 2001)

The Toronto Factories:  My check of old Toronto business directories indicated that Canadian General Electric was in operation from about 1930 to 1959.  Its first factory was located at 212-216 King Street West in the early 1930s.  Later locations included 221 Dufferin, 830/940/1025 Lansdowne, and 224-228 Wallace.  I don’t know in which of these factories the clocks were made.  The kitchen clocks had just the letter-number codes on the labels.  The advertisements and boxes also included the model name.

Many models of electric alarm and table clocks were also produced in Toronto for the Canadian market.  The museum has several examples of these in its collection of Canadian General Electric clocks.

The pictures here show the wall models currently (April 2017) in the museum's Canadian General Electric collection.  Plastic was king in the 1950s and most models in the catalogues had several options for the bright colours, including YELLOW and RED.  Some models were bicolour.  The production dates are Amercian from the above book, but the Canadian dates will be similar.

Even after sixty years, some of these old clocks are still running!  The quality of the self-starting electric motors was very high.  The red colour seen in the HOLE in the dial below the 12 for some models was a power failure indicator that let you know that the power had been off and the dial time was incorrect.

We have lots of new pictures showing the many sections of our unique museum that started its 21st year in 2020 promoting two centuries of Canadian-made and Canadian label clocks.  Included are the clock-covered entrance stairs walls and most areas of the Exhibit Room.  Enjoy.

Questions and comments are welcomed.

Allan Symons

Curator

April 2020

The CANADA CLOCK COMPANY:  By mid 2017 our museum had added many new examples to its collection of mantel and wall clocks that were 100% Canadian-made in the company factory in Hamilton, Ontario between 1880 and 1884. 

Many were acquired indirectly from the Jim Connell collection via Miller brothers antiques in New Hamburg, Ontario.   Others were donations from various sources in 2017 or purchased online from different sellers. 

The following mantel models were received in early October 2017 by donation from the late Bryan Hollebone's collection: VICTORIA (version with drawer), St. LAWRENCE (with alarm), WINNIPEG (spools version), and FOREST BEAUTY.

Most recently the museum added, again from the Jim Connell collection, four more mantel clocks that were purchased at the Miller brothers' October 7, 2017 live auction in New Hamburg, Ontario:  the TILLEY, CITY of HALIFAX, CROWN JEWEL ("horns" version), and an attractive model (no label) whose name is not yet known.

At May 2018 we are still looking for good examples of the following known models for our collection:  the MANITOBA and the CITY OF PARIS (the larger version).

Enjoy

This short-lived company was located in Montreal from ca. 1936 to 1940, based on old business directories listings.  To date (July 2021), the only product known is spring-driven pendulum mantel clocks.  Some were apparently imported from Germany before WWII.  Others have Made-in-Canada wood cases with imported movements.

Three new examples were added to our collection of Fleet mantel clocks by donation (with thanks) in August 2018.  One has the typical period "humpback" wood case.  But two of the case designs are quite unusual.  One has a plain but beautiful rectangular wood box (walnut?) case with no evidence of any dial.  The other wood case has three angular steps at each end.

This American early manufacturer of electric clocks had a factory in Toronto from 1931 to 1936 to produce clocks for the Canadian market. 

The clocks used Laurens Hammond's slow-speed, manual-start motors - a knob on the back of the clock had to be spun to start the clock, and power interruptions stopped the clock until it was restarted by hand.   The original cords had cloth covers typical of the 1930s.

The mantel models had either molded bakelite plastic cases (dark brown or black) or wood cases.  Our wall clock example has a painted metal case. 

Some models were available with an alarm function, e.g. the HAMMOND JUNIOR.  The GREGORY had a calendar that shows the day of the week and the month date. 

Note that most Hammond clocks did not show the model name on them.  Model names are known from period company catalogues and advertising.

CUSTOM-MADE REPRODUCTION PEQUEGNAT CLOCKS:  NOTE:  This gallery is not about The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company that was in business a long time ago in Berlin / Kitchener, Ontario 1904-1941.  The Pequegnat Clock Company of Canada was set up by one of Arthur’s great grandsons, Paul Pequegnat, in 1984 in Manotick, Ontario (southeast of Ottawa).

Paul made faithful reproductions of eight original Pequegnat wall models and twelve original mantel models.  And he created his own special wall model and a special mantel model - details below.  The choices and options were shown on his Price List.

Posted in The Pequegnat Room at the museum is a brief biography of Paul’s interesting careers written by his widow Anne.  He started as a newspaper reporter in Kitchener, became an accredited film photographer with the CBC, and was the chief cameraman at CBC Ottawa television.  He then went freelance with his own company called Paul Pequegnat Productions.  For years he travelled all over the world, including the Arctic, Russia and Viet Nam, producing films for the CBC, BBC, ABC and CBS television networks. 

Finally, after a long career, he “retired” in 1984 to make copies of his great grandfather’s clocks!

CUSTOMER OPTIONS:  Paul’s customers would first select the clock style from the display models in his home and then choose the wood for the case.  The options were oak, mahogany, and walnut, the latter at higher cost.  And he provided three options for the wood finish: Colonial, Heritage, and Mission (the Price List described them), hand-rubbed to low, medium or high lustre.  The case would then be custom-built by Paul and a German spring-driven Hermle pendulum movement was installed to complete the clock within six to eight weeks after a twenty percent deposit was placed with the order.

Paul made his own cases and used German movements.  Note the contrast with the original Pequegnat clocks, where Arthur’s factory made the movements that were then installed in wood cases manufactured for him for almost twenty years by the furniture factories in Berlin/Kitchener.  Arthur’s own case factory was in production by 1920 for another twenty years.

IN THE MUSEUM'S COLLECTION:  Two of the eight models in the museum’s collection of Paul’s clocks were donated by his widow Anne, five were later purchased in 2015 from a collector who had earlier bought them from her, and the eighth was obtained at an estate auction in Smiths Falls, Ontario in early 2017. 

Six of our clocks are reproductions of Pequegnat original catalogued models (the Tokio, Barrie, Peterboro, Montreal, Brandon, and Woodstock), but the Colonial Westminster wall clock and the Parliament mantel clock are Paul’s own designs.  The unusual Colonial Westminster has a birds-eye maple wood case, a three-spring chimes movement, and two fake weights.  

GALLERY PICTURES:  Shown here are the eight models currently in the museum's collection.  Seven labels and some typical imported German movements that he used are included.  The Introduction page from Paul's catalogue and his 1993 price list provide details about the model options.

All but the Woodstock have Paul’s company label on the back, each with the model typed in but a different serial (?) number.  Unfortunately, Anne has no information about the unusual typed-in numbers on the labels, but part of each number may refer to the year of production.

Paul’s great skill as a cabinet maker is clearly evident in these clocks.  Sadly, there is no record of how many clocks he made to order for his customers (perhaps one hundred?) during the thirteen year production period up to the end of his life in mid 1997.

The Blue Mountain Pottery (BMP) factory in Collingwood, Ontario produced hundreds of designs of jugs, pots, vases, figurines, and other shapes using glazed, molded local-area red clay from about 1953 to 2004.  Based on our research, they did not make or sell clocks.

However, in the 1960s and 1970s they did produce four versions of ceramic plates for Caravelle battery wall clocks sold by the United States-based Bulova Watch Company.

Our museum currently (April 2019) has two examples (colours) of each of the round plate, octagonal plate, and chicken clock models.  Their pictures are included in this Gallery.  The known colours are the classic BMP dark green, cobalt blue, and orange/red.  Note the variety of dial shapes / designs. 

And we finally acquired recently a green version of the fish model.  It was generously donated in March 2019 by Piotr Burek - thank you!

Embossed on the back of each plate is the three-trees BMP logo and the mold number.  The mold numbers are C-170 (round plate, 25 cm diameter), C-171 (fish, 32 cm wide), C-172 (chicken, 34 cm high), and C-173 (octagonal plate, 25 cm wide).

The early battery movements needed a large flashlight battery to drive the geared balance-wheel mechanism for a year.  It is possible that early quartz movements were used by the mid 1970s when they became more widely available.  But some clocks found today may have replacement quartz movements that were installed after the original geared movements failed.

The picture of the red version of the fish model shown here was found online.

The web site for Blue Mountain Pottery collectors is www.bmpcc.com.

THE CLOCK's KNOWN HISTORY:  Our unique museum acquired this rare and unusual Canadian-made floor clock in June of 2005.  The clock's "history", recorded in French probably in the 1920s, indicated that it was made in the early 1820s north of Montreal, Lower Canada.  The maker is recorded as Xavier Clement, a man who apparently made spinning wheels at that time.  A scan of that small document, which includes the English translation provided by the previous owners of the clock, is included below.

THE CASE:  The main case and removable hood are made of pine wood with a dark finish.  In bright light there is evidence for grain painting seen through the outer finish.  Some sections of the front (probably cut from the same board) show evidence for aging perhaps caused by severe temperature and humidity variations over the clock's lifetime of almost two centuries.

THE DIALS:  They are made from wood, with hand-painted numbers, chapter ring, and ornamentation that includes the colourful rainbow ring around both dials and the two moons on the moon phase dial.

THE WOOD MOVEMENT: In this gallery you will see many pictures of the various wood components in the three-train movement, including the gears and pulleys.  This 8-day, weight-driven pendulum clock has a painted pine wood case in the 1820s piller & scroll hood style better known for the Twiss pine-case floor clocks made in their own factory in Montreal, province of Lower Canada in the 1820s. 

The Twiss brothers used 30-hour wood time & strike movements imported from Connecticut, and tin-can weights filled with stones or sand.  This Xavier Clement clock has two much larger tin can weights (stones) for running the eight-day time and strike gear trains, plus a smaller lead weight for the third gear train that runs the simple quarter-hour strike on four bells.

This unusual movement also has a simple calendar system driven by two wood gears, one with seven teeth (for day of the week) and the other with thirty-one teeth (for day of the month).  Two small hands indicate the day and date on the main dial below the centre.  The first letter of the French word for each day of the week is printed in pencil on the calendar dial - for example j = jeudi (Thursday) and v = vendredi (Friday).  See the pictures in this Gallery. 

Note that the brass hands and four cast bells are replacements installed by the previous owners in Montreal when they had the movement restored (several broken teeth).  It was a "basket case", missing its hands and bells, when they found it many years ago.  We painted the hands flat black after acquiring the clock in June 2005.

RESEARCH:   museum volunteer, Ray Springer, has done much research recently about Xavier Clement in various archives in Quebec.  The results of that work will be recorded here in the near future (summer 2015).

Select any thumbnail image to show all images.

This Gallery will be of special interest to serious collectors of

100% Canadian-made Pequegnat mantel clocks.

There were almost one hundred different catalogued models of mantel, wall, and hall (grandfather) clocks produced by The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company between 1904 and 1941 in Berlin / 1916 / Kitchener, Ontario.  Some are more common today than others, and their current values reflect that uneven distribution. 

No company production records have ever been found - sadly, in fact, there is very good evidence that they were intentionally destroyed around the day of the final disposal auction in 1964.  "Marcel Pequegnat, nominally the last company President, ordered that all company records be taken to the dump.  Which was done."

But there is one extremely rare model that collectors are looking for:  the PREMIER mantel clock listed only in the first catalogue in 1904.  All other Pequegnat clocks have wood cases.  The PREMIER has a black-painted metal (cast iron) case, in the general style of the tens of thousands of black metal-cased mantel clocks made by several American companies in the early 1900s.

Because of the high collector value for the PREMIER model, there has often been a concern about "home-made" (= fake) Premier examples possibly showing up on the market.

As of mid April 2017, we were aware of just THREE separate examples of the PREMIER that are in private hands.  In each case the owners contacted our museum for identification.  And we then consulted Canadian clocks and Pequegnat clocks expert Jim Connell for his opinion.

The first example was reported to us back in 2006 and is in private hands in western Canada. 

The second example has two aspects that raised concerns about authenticity.  One is that the front feet are a typical Pequegnat style BUT NOT the shape shown in the 1904 catalogue.  The other concern is that the slow / fast speed adjust letters are reversed on its dial compared to "normal" early Pequegnat dials.  They appear as F  S around the dial hole, not the expected S  F.  However, there now appears to be a plausible explanation for this oddity - read on!

The third example, like the first, appears to be a perfect match with the picture in the 1904 catalogue.  Note that the owners of this clock do have both lions heads RINGS not shown in some of their pictures.  JUNE 2017 UPDATE:  This example was sold by the owners to an anonymous buyer for at least $5,000.

For each example in the many pictures below, the black painted case and back panel are metal.  Only the inside floor that holds the spiral gong is made of wood.  There is no paper company label on any of these three clocks.

For examples 1 and 3, at the bottom of the early celluloid plastic dial you see The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Co., Berlin, Canada.   There is no company name on the example 2 dial, BUT that is NOT a concern, because many early Pequegnat celluloid dials do not have the company name.

Also, for each clock, the confirmed Pequegnat-design movement does not have the company name, but that is also not uncommon for early Pequegnat mantel clock movements.  However, all three have the characteristic shiny, nickel-plated back plates the same as for stamped Pequegnat movements.

CONCLUSIONS - ARE THEY REAL?  In this group of three PREMIER clocks, two (the first and third in this discussion) look to be identical to the picture in the Pequegnat 1904 catalogue and they are believed to be all original. The 1904 catalogue description includes:  PARLOR CLOCK.  Premier.  Black Enamelled Iron.  Width 14 inches.  Height 10 1/2 inches.  The dimensions appear to include the feet and lions heads.

I believe that the second example is also real, perhaps made in a later production run when "normal" Pequegnat feet were taken from the stock used for their wood-cased models.  The reversed letters around the dial hole for the speed-adjust arbor, F  S instead of the usual S  F, stand out for sure.  BUT the fact that an early COLONIAL model also has the perceived "defective" dial (see the pictures in this Gallery) suggests that the Pequegnat factory workers had simply used a stock of these "defective" dials.  OPEN FOR DISCUSSION.

ALL PICTURES in this Gallery were kindly provided to us with our thanks by the different clock owners in 2006 (the first), 2017 (the second, including the Colonial model with the same "wrong" dial), and 2017 (the third).

So we now know about three examples of the rare PREMIER model.  Can we now assume that here must me more out there somewhere in Canada?  HAPPY HUNTING.

UPDATE April 2019:   There is no new information to report.

Allan Symons
museum Curator

P.S.  IF YOU HAVE A PREMIER MODEL and wish to confirm its identity, compare yours with these pictures and the catalogue dimensions.  And you can contact the museum for advice.

As of March 2015 the museum now has two old work benches in its Exhibit Room.  An oak rolltop bench with foot-operated lathe was acquired in October 2008.  The patent date on the large metal flywheel is 1898.  It may have come originally from a watch/clock repair shop in Toronto.

In March 2015 we added by donation an open-top bench used by Max Silverman in his Dominion Jewellers shop in Ottawa for several decades starting around 1957.

Pictures of these two benches with some associated tools are shown in this Gallery.

Below are pictures of the known-to-date (October 2018) Girotti wall clocks.  Nine of them are now in the museum's own Girotti collection. The latest addition is the large wood panel with chalkware ship and billowing sails, purchased from a person whose parents acquired the clock when new.  This model was not included in the company's 1971 catalogue.

Note the use of brass bars hour markers on the dials of some of the wood panel models.

The date of manufacture was often molded into the chalkware components on the wood panel clocks and into the side of the molded polymer foam cases.  See the pictures for examples.

For the fan-shaped, starburst style, three different metal rod frame designs are known (see the pictures).  The museum has two examples.  Various combinations of walnut wood rays could be used to create different models.

The molded polymer-foam cased clocks had round metal dials.  The same script word Girotti is found on the dials of both the wood and metal dials.  See the pictures here.

We have two (one now loose) of the original three identical round Girotti Sculptured Art labels on the back of the Spanish Villa example.   They covered the three drilled holes in the wood veneer panel where the nuts are installed in the back on the small bolts that hold the heavy molded chalkware piece(s) in place. 

The same label is found on the back of Girotti chalkware wall plaques and on the chalkware statues.

The 1971 Girotti Sculptured Art catalogue shows three different models of wood panel clock (but none of the four now in our collection!) and eleven models of molded foam wall clocks.  Our Spanish GALLEON molded foam model was included on page 18 and our BARBOQUE model on page 16.

There were many other company products that included molded chalkware statues, molded picture and mirror frames, and wall plaques with molded designs.

Our museum thanks Aaron Tisdelle, a grandson of company co-founder Marino Girotti, for the loan of his 1971 company catalogue so that we could scan the pages.

The scans of the covers plus the three pages with clocks from the 1971 Girotti catalogue are included here.

SELECT ANY PICTURE TO SHOW THE COMPLETE SET.

See the Canadian Makers section for details about this company set up in Toronto in the early 1930s by Walter Stonkus from Lithuania (arrived 1927).  Before WWII, Walter made all of the wood cases for his mantel clocks and put in spring-driven pendulum movements imported from England and Germany.  The cases had a walnut veneer finish and a hinged back door.

There were no clocks produced during WWII because overseas movements were not available.  After the war, Walter's son Bill joined the company and Walter Clocks was again making their own mantel clocks from the late 1940s into the late 1950s.  Most of the cases were now constructed with stained birch wood rather than the more expensive walnut.  And Walter had designed the unique removable round back door characteristic of his postwar clocks.  The pendulum movements were imported from West Germany (URGOS).

By the late 1950s, when the North American market for mantel clocks started to decline, the company was also importing various types of German clocks (e.g. cuckoo, 400 day, alarm) for sale in Canada.  That business continued up to the mid 1960s.

Below are pictures of the mantel clocks currently in the museum's Walter Clocks collection.  The exception is the Style 300 clock that a private owner enquired about - we thank him for the pictures.

Included in the set of pictures are the typical prewar/postwar company label always found inside the back door, Walter's postwar round back door, the typical postwar pendulum bob, and some of the spring-driven pendulum movements.  

OUR COLLECTION OF WALTER CLOCKS AT MAY 2018

The parent company of Westclox Canada, the Western Clock Company, started up near Chicago, Illinois in the 1880s.

The first Westclox factory outside the United States was set up in Peterborough, Ontario in an empty building in 1920.  By 1923 a new factory was ready, and additions were put on regularly up to the 1950s as business continued to expand.  The Peterborough factory closed in the 1980s when the Westclox north American factories also shut down in favour of offshore locations where labour costs were lower.

The model name Big Ben was created in the U.S. around 1908 for their large nickel-plated, spring-driven  "tin can" alarm clocks.   The models Baby Ben (smaller size), Pocket Ben (watch), and Wrist Ben followed just a few years later.

In this Gallery we include many examples of Canadian-made Westclox alarm clocks dating from the early 1920s through to the early 1980s.

SELECT ANY PICTURE TO SHOW COMPLETE SET

Back in the mid 1800s in the Province of Canada (1841-1867), rich people could afford to purchase an expensive clock that would have been made in a "big city" in eastern North America or imported from Europe.  But the vast majority of residents did not have the money to spend on one of those clocks, and many families functioned very well without any clock in the home, especially in rural areas.

By the early 1840s Seth Thomas and other American clock manufacturers were changing from wood movements to using sheet brass produced locally in Connecticut to stamp out the gears and movement plates.   See our WOOD GEAR CLOCKS IN CANADA Gallery.  This new process with sheet brass created interchangeable parts, the same as the earlier wood gears method, and continued to lower the average cost of the "mass-produced" clock movements.  

In the 1850s and 1860s several residents of Leeds County, east of Kingston in Canada West (Ontario today) and also some men in the Toronto / Hamilton area were importing Seth Thomas thirty-hour and eight-day, weight-driven clocks with their own customized labels.   Those clocks were sold mostly door to door by the peddlers travelling, of course, by horse-drawn wagons over unpaved roads back then.

In this Gallery we show many examples of these earliest brass-movement clocks from the museum's collections.

Shown in this Gallery from the museum's collections are some pictures of 1820s and 1830s wood-gears clocks with Canadian labels.

Before about 1840, rolled sheet brass was an expensive material imported into North America from England.   Early clock movements were custom made one tooth at a time, one gear at a time - the costs of labour time and materials were both high.   The result was that only rich people could afford a clock.

To get around this brass "problem", beginning in the mid 1700s some American clock makers started to use local woods - oak and finer-grain cherry - to make the plates and gears, respectively, for some tall case clocks.  Eli Terry in Connecticut patented a wood-geared 30-hour, weight-driven movement for mantel clocks in 1816.  This led to the "mass-produced" classic pillar & scroll clock case with its interchageable-parts movement that became very popular in the 1820s as the affordable clock for many middle class families.  The museum has an example with a case made in Nova Scotia and the movement (probably) imported from Eli Terry's factory (see pictures).

In the 1820s/30s thirty-hour, weight-driven wood movements were being used in eastern North America in low-end floor clocks with pine cases painted to look like mahogany wood.  The weights were typically metal cans filled with stones, and were pulled up daily by their cables.  No key was needed - the winding holes on the hand-painted wood dials were fake!  This was the lowest cost floor clock available.

Several Twiss brothers came up to Montreal, Lower Canada, from Connecticut in the mid / late 1820s to set up a factory to produce grain-painted pine cases for floor clocks for the Canadian market.  The thirty-hour, weight-driven wood movements were imported from a Connecticut factory.  The museum has examples by JB & R (Joseph and Russell) and I (Ira) Twiss. (see pictures).

The 1830s brought a change in mantel case style to the larger, half columns and splat top mantel clock that typically had a mirror in the lower section of the door.  Wooden gears and cast iron weights were still used to drive the clock's time and strike gear trains.  The museum has examples from sellers in Nova Scotia, Lower Canada, and Upper Canada (see pictures).

Starting around 1840, Seth Thomas in Connecticut began using locally produced sheet brass to make his clock movements.  The parts were stamped out and therefore interchangeable, which greatly reduced the manufacturing cost of clocks and hence the price to the public.

The museum's collection of Canadian-label clocks from this time period - SHOWN IN A SEPARATE GALLERY - includes examples of Seth Thomas 30-hour and 8-day weight-driven, brass movement mantel clocks that were imported into Canada West up to the 1860s.  These EXTRA NO. 1 BRASS CLOCKS were sold mostly by peddlars to customers in Leeds County (east of Kingston) and in the Toronto and Hamilton areas in the 1850s and 1860s.  Peddlars' names included Van Tassel, Southworth, Field, and Abel.

Seth Thomas started making clocks in Plymouth, Connecticut in the early 1800s, originally using wood for the plates and gears (interchangeable parts) like other clockmakers at that time.  By about 1840 he had switched to using sheet brass that became available from the local rolling mills.  This material was much less expensive than the sheet brass that had to be imported in earlier decades from England, and the movement parts could now be stamped out.  The result was the start of mass production of relatively inexpensive brass clock movements and clocks.

Seth Thomas the man died in the late 1850s, but his company continued in business for more than a century.  In 1931 Seth Thomas Clocks became part of General Time Corporation, which owned Westclox.

In Canada, Seth Thomas brand mantel, alarm, and wall clocks were made in the Westclox factory in Peterborough, Ontario from the early 1930s until the mid 1980s when the factory closed.

In this Gallery are shown from our museum's collections some of the typical Seth Thomas brand clocks made in the 20th century in the Peterborough factory.  Both time & strike (on the hour and half hour) and chiming (on the quarter hours) spring-driven pendulum movements were used in the mantel clocks, depending on the model.  In addition, some models were available with an electric motor. 

The quarter-hour chiming pendulum movements were brought in from the American Westclox factory.  Their RD 1931 alarm clocks had high-quality balance-wheel movements made in the Peterborough Westclox factory.

Note that back in the mid 19th century many weight-driven Seth Thomas mantel clocks were brought into Canada West (Ontario today) from the Plymouth, Connecticut factory by peddlars in Leeds County east of Kingston and by sellers in the Toronto and Hamilton area.  Examples of those clocks are shown in a separate Gallery on our site.

(3)  The original factory in Hamilton was retained, but upgrades were made where necessary.

• 30-hour, time & strike, weight-driven (for OG clocks)
• 30-hour, time only, spring-driven
• 30-hour, time & alarm (between the plates0, spring-driven
• 30-hour, time & strike, spring-driven
• 8-day, time-only, spring-driven
• 8-day, time & strike, spring-driven
• optional separate alarm mechanism

 

   

 

 

 

The text and images below were provided by Canadian clocks expert Jim Connell.  Jane Varkaris also did some of the original research for the book that they co-authored in 1986.  The book details are given at the bottom of this section.

This company was established in 1876, after the failure of the Canada Clock Company in Whitby, Ontario.  The factory was located in an existing building at the corner of Cathcart and Kelly Streets in old Hamilton, Ontario.

Most mantel and wall clock cases from the Hamilton factory were made from standardized veneered mouldings that were cut and glued together in a variety of shapes.  This technique was also used by competitive firms and certainly simplified the amount of woodworking skill required.  To form the base of each case, two moulding styles were available, which can be described as “single curve” and “double curve”.  The upper portion of each case was made from mouldings which were either “wide” or “narrow” in form.  

Five different movements are known to have been produced at Hamilton during this period. These consisted of

• 30-hour, weight-driven, time & strike,
  
• 30-hour, spring-driven, time only,
  
• 30-hour, spring-driven, time & strike,
  
• 8-day, spring-driven, time & strike,
  
• a separate alarm mechanism

30-hour, time & strike OG movement

30-hour, time-only, spring-driven movement

30-hour, spring-driven, time & strike movement

8-day, spring-driven, time & strike movement

8-day, time-only, spring-driven movement  (strike side removed)

separate spring-driven alarm mechanism (bell not present)

company name stamp on brass movement plate

Most clocks were fitted with standard labels that contained operating instructions, the company name, and location.  The factory building was frequently shown in an engraving.  Pictures of several examples are provided below.  Model names were not given to most clocks.  One exception was “The Simpson”, a simple little cottage clock of unusual shape, which is shown in the section below. It was, of course, named after the company President, James Simpson.  Since only one example is known, it was apparently not a ‘best seller’.

1-day mantel clock label

8-day mantel clock label

mantel clock with inside label

Simpson model clock label

Examples of Clocks Produced by the Hamilton Clock Company

This section shows examples of most of the clock varieties produced.  Other variants may exist.  In fact, new versions are identified from time to time.  Some of the clocks shown are very rare and in some instances only one or two examples are known.  Similar mantel clock styles are grouped together to show how the components could be varied within a single style to create new models.  All had spring-driven pendulum movements, except the OG clocks.

This style was typically a small, time-only shelf clock that was less expensive to make and buy.  Several American companies produced similar models in the mid/late 1800s.

miniature 30-hour time

30-hour time & strike

30-hour time & strike

30-hour time & strike

30-hour time & strike

8-day time & strike

8-day, time & strike

Many of the clocks shown above were fitted with glass tablets that contained acid-etched designs. These are unique.  In the latter 1800s, Hamilton was the site of two glass-making plants, both of which made window glass. Glass decorating would have been commonplace at the time, and we do not know for sure if this was done at the clock factory or elsewhere.

The Canada and Hamilton Clock Companies, Jane Varkaris & James E. Connell,Boston Mills Press, Erin, Ontario 1986 (out of print).

NOTE: The museum's own clocks made by this company are included in a separate Gallery.  TO BE ADDED MAY 2018.

The text and images below were provided by Canadian clocks expert Jim Connell.  Jane Varkaris also did some of the original research for the book that they co-authored in 1986.  The book details are provided at the bottom of this section.

  

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The museum has a large collection of old hand tools, some dating to before 1900, that were used for watch and clock restoration.  Most have been donated, but we have purchased some from people who have closed their shops. 

A selection of identified tools is presented in a wooden tool box with many drawers that can be viewed by visitors.

We have on display a ca. 1900 rolltop oak bench with its foot-operated lathe and massive 1898 flywheel.  You can also see Max Silverman's mid 20th century work bench with his desk light, tools, and spare parts for watch repair.  His shop was located in downtown Ottawa where he worked for about thirty-five years.

Below are pictures of some of the old tools and displays.

The museum has several sundials that operate well on SUNNY days.   Click on one of the pictures below to show the complete set, then click on any picture to enlarge it and read the caption.

There are two portable garden sundials on the front lawn that are not very accurate.  One has the typical flat dial and fixed gnomon (shadow caster) on a concrete base.  The other with adjustable gnomon for setting local latitude has a brass armillary type of dial where the shadow cast by the arrow shaft moves across the semicircular array of hour markers.

There are two wall sundials that show standard time during the winter and daylight saving time during the summer.   These were designed and made for the museum in 2001 and 2003 by Julian Brown of Kingston and are modernized versions of the types of wall sundials used in Europe thousands of years ago.   Time is read from the straight edge of the shadow on the dial. 

The colourful wall example with the copper gnomon on the front of the building catches the mid-day through afternoon sun.  The tip of the shadow moves daily as the shadow gets longer (December 21 to June 21) or shorter (June 21 to December 21).  The tip falls on one of the colour zones that refer to the seasons - green for summer grass and white for winter snow, red and yellow for both spring flowers and fall leaves.

The wall example facing the driveway around the corner with the pink Plexiglas gnomon catches the morning and mid-day sun.  Both wall sundials are two feet square.  Note the very different layouts of the dials because of their 90 degrees difference in angle to the sun.

In the summer of 2008 we installed a "human" analemmic sundial on our front lawn.  A visitor can stand on the correct month on the centre board set into the lawn and use his/her shadow falling across an array of numbered round patio stones to estimate current time to within about ten minutes.   The pink round patio stones are used for daylight saving time and the grey stones for standard time. 

Because of our climate, this unusual sundial is buried under snow during the winter, from late November through late March !  (But our wall sundials still work well, on sunny days, in the winter).

Douglas Hunt at www.sunclocks.com in Scotland can provide the correct dimensions for the layout of a human sundial based on your latitude and longitude on the earth.  Apparently these designs are very popular with schools, where the centre board and numbers can be set out on the playground.

Check out this interesting sundials web site:  http://www.sundials.co.uk/types.htm.

Animated windup alarm clocks were made in the early/mid 20th century by various companies in many countries, including Canada, the United States, Great Britain, France, and Brazil.  These animated clocks were originally sold for use by children, but have become very collectible by "kids of all ages" today.  Some early rare models are worth hundreds of dollars.

The museum has a small collection with representative examples from the major manufacturers: Westclox (Peterborough), Ingraham Canadian (Toronto), Smiths (England), Lux (United States), and Sturm (Brazil, probably in the Westclox factory there).  The museum also has examples from eastern European countries and from China.

We are still looking for affordable examples of animated alarm clocks made by Bayard (France, under a Disney characters license), Ingersoll (United States), and Waterbury (United States).

NOTE that the EARLY BIRD, PIXIE, and WOODY's CAFE were unbranded Westclox models in Canada.  You will see MADE IN CANADA on the dials but you will not find the Westclox name on the dials or cases.

THE WESTERNER (similar to the ROY ROGERS model in the United States) and THE MOUNTIE models by Ingraham Canadian were obviously made for the Canadian market.

Some of these pictures were taken by 2008 summer student Michelle, then edited and put on the web site by 2009 summer student Megan.  Several pictures were upgraded when new models acquired over the past five years were added to this online collection in March 2015.  Allan.

There were many models of advertising clocks produced in Canada for the Canadian market, starting as early as the 1920s for clocks with electric motors.  Most companies were located in Ontario and Quebec.

The Canadian Neon Ray Clock Company in Montreal made neon and back-lit (light bulbs) glass dial clocks during the period from the early 1940s to the mid 1960s.

Our museum's collection currently holds more than eighty examples that promote brand-name soft drinks, beer, service station products, mattresses, bicycles, and cigarettes.  Most of these are shown in this Gallery.

Note that the square Raybestos "Brake Service for Safety" clock uses a spring-driven pendulum movement from The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company in the 1920s/1930s.  Most examples seen with this colourful Raybestos dial had an electric motor.   Presumably the windup version was available for service stations located in areas of rural Ontario that were not yet connected to the electricity grid back then.

ALL PEQUEGNAT CLOCKS WERE 100% MADE IN CANADA - PROUDLY WAVE THE FLAG!

The history of Arthur's company can be found in the Canadian Makers section of our web site.

All known movements were made in his factory.  During the first twenty years, the wood cases were produced for him in the nearby furniture factories.  He bulit his own case factory in the mid 1920s.

Our museum has an almost complete set of the roughly ninety catalogued models of mantel, wall, and hall (grandfather) clocks produced by The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company in Berlin / 1916 / Kitchener, Ontario between 1904 and about 1941. The brass shortage caused by WWII forced the clock factory to close around 1941.

The company also sold complete movements - everything you needed except the wood case - so that people could build their own clocks.  Apparently some did.  There are a couple of unusual examples of these in our Pequegnat collection.

The same as for most wood furniture way back then, the cases were usually made with oak wood.  However, in the company catalogues both walnut and mahogany were upgrade options available at extra cost.  The museum's collection includes several examples with these two woods.

For the many tambour ("napolean's hat") models produced during the 1920s and 1930s, examples are found with two different dial sizes.  The company catalogue showed only one size for a given model.  Was a different dial size a customer option?

In addition to pictures of the clocks below, there are some closeups of typical movements, dials, and labels.  More will be added as time permits.

We welcome requests for information about YOUR Pequegnat clock, whether inherited or found.

                                                              AUGUST 2018

The Snider Clock Corporation was Harry Snider's first clock company, in operation in Toronto from 1950 to 1957.   The Snider Clock Mfg Company produced clocks from 1957 to 1976.  The CANADIAN MAKERS section of our web site has details about the history of these two companies.

Our unique museum received a small Community Memories contract from Heritage Canada in 2007 to research and tell the Snider clocks story.  The project was completed with the assistance of Michael Snider and summer student Megan Morris.  The results can be found in the Community Memories section of the Virtual Museum of Canada web site.  The fastest route is to search on Google for "The House of Snider", including the quotation marks.

Here are pictures of most of the approximately two hundred examples of mantel, alarm, TV lamp, and wall clocks (including many "starburst" models) in the museum's always growing Snider collection.  The dates in the captions are mostly estimates.

New Snider clocks are acquired regularly through purchases on eBay, Kijiji, Etsy (starting in 2020), and Facebook Marketplace (starting in January 2021) plus in antiques malls and flea markets, and by donation.

Note that the battery-operated movements available in the 1960s and early 1970s were NOT the quartz type that we know today.  They were balance-wheel movements that received an electrical impulse from a large C or D cell flashlight battery.  Typically they were enclosed inside a clear plastic box.

Most of the initial photographs were taken by summer student Megan Morris in 2007, then edited and added to the site by her in June 2009.  Since then, more pictures have been added regularly as "new" Snider clocks have been acquired from various sources.

LAST PICTURES UPDATED MARCH 2018.  Allan.