163.           $9000

Silas B. Terry vertical balance wheel sharp gothic, 1849-1852. A 24.75-inch-tall sharp gothic, 13.25 inches wide, with two period/original glasses and a well-preserved tablet; note that the lower glass has a vertical crack but is stable.  The mahogany veneer is intact with no obvious repairs; the finish is clean. The cone finials are likely original, with a glue repair to the top of the left finial.  The dial board is wood, the paint and numbering are old.  The hands are old, the seconds hand a modern replacement.  The large brass balance wheel, 30-hour time and strike movement is, well, exceptional.  Terry patented the balance wheel movement in 1845.  You can find it in a few other steeple clocks and in some weight-driven Empire clocks (as in this auction, #136).  Note the wooden fusees above the movement, very unusual.  It is running and striking with a seconds beat.  Most of these clocks had just two dial openings, one to view the balance wheel and one to accommodate the seconds bit; it is not clear why this dial has the two additional lateral openings. At least one other example is known with four dial openings.  The label is beat up but shows the maker and the retailer, Daniel Pratt’s Sons at Union and Marshall streets in Boston.  This clock once belonged to Anthony Sposato, and more recently, James Price.  I cannot find a sale for this model with four dial openings, although a similar model with only two dial openings sold at R.O. Schmitt in 2014 for $14,000.   $9000-$15,000.