174.           $1600

Birge & Fuller 30-hour double-steeple with wagon-spring movement, 1844-1848.  A 24-inch steeple-on-steeple with four cone finials and good mahogany veneer all around.  The three glasses are period; the lower tablet is also period, the middle tablet may be a repaint.  The dial has very old paint with some chipping and yellowing along the edges.  The hands are period and proper.  The small lyre-shaped, 30-hour time-and-strike movement is unsigned.  It will run for a short while, the strike is fine.  There is a period pendulum bob, lead with an embossed brass cover.  The label is protected behind plastic.  Thirty-hour double-steeples are much less common than 8-day versions; they are also two inches shorter than their big brothers.  The last sale I can find of a 30-hour was at Schmitt Horan in 2020 for $1900.  $1600-$2200.