78.              $250

Brewster & Ingrahams thirty-hour steeple with Kirk’s iron backplate, 1843–1852.  Elias Ingraham designed the sharp gothic (steeple) clock; this is an early example that uses Kirk’s iron backplate and barrels to hold the brass springs first used in these early spring-driven clocks.  Charles Kirk was a shop manager for Brewster prior to the formation of B&I.  The 20-inch case with cone finials has flame/crotch mahogany on the front and two old glasses, with the lower glass repainted with a Fenn-style tablet.  Beautiful.  The contoured dial holds the original paint and a Brewster & Ingrahams signature; the hands are period.  The brass 30-hour movement is unsigned and unwilling to run and will need work.  It will strike on the wire gong.  This movement has an unusual strike chain with the count wheel on a center arbor in back; this movement is shown in Roberts, The Contributions of Joseph Ives to Connecticut Clock Technology, 1810-1862 in Figures 116A and B, center panel (pages 254-255), and is discussed in a comprehensive NAWCC Bulletin article by the previous owner, James Price (see Figures 37-42, pages 431-433; No. 225, Aug 1983).  There is a good label behind plastic. $250–$800.