169.           $3500

Seth Thomas Clock Co. “Regulator No. 4”, ca. 1879. This is a very uncommon clock, with only two sales records in the last 24 years.  The 47-inch case is oak with burl veneer on the back wall, base, and trim pieces, and a medium-dark old finish.  There are carvings on the door corbels and four proper finials. I see no defects; the door glass and four side-glasses are original (there is a small crack at the top of the door glass where a center crack in the door was likely repaired).  The porcelain dial has several very faint hairlines, too faint for the camera, and three correct hands.  The Seth Thomas trapezoidal time-only movement is signed and running, eight days, driven by a brass weight a regulated by a damascened brass pendulum bob.  There is a beat scale and a black label on the inside bottom of the case. No date on the back.  Seth Thomas also made a slightly bigger brother to this model, the Regulator No. 5, 50 inches in length. You don’t see that one either.  R.O. Schmitt sold a walnut example in 2015 for $6000 and Fontaine’s sold a walnut example in 2014 for $4500.  $3500–$5000.

After I posted this on the AAC Facebook page an esteemed collector who probably wishes to remain anonymous told me he thought the weight was wrong.  This weight is a No. 2 weight, and the catalog illustration seems to show a weight with knurled end-caps.  The example sold by Fontaine's in 2014 appears to have a standard (6-inch) weight with knurled end-caps; the one sold by Schmitt's had a third, shorter weight that did not have knurled end-caps.  A second collector I trust who has a No. 4 says his weight is 4 inches long with knurled end caps.  I have a standard knurled weight (used on other ST regulators) that I will provide with this clock instead of the weight shown, but it is not the correct length.