245.         $500

Marine Clock Manufacturing Co. brass gallery clock, 1847-1872.  A partnership of Eli Dickerman and Charles Kirk, the latter being the inventor of this and many other brass movements, in New Haven CT.  Kirk left the firm in 1854.  This lever-spring (balance wheel) movement uses a chain fusee and a double escapement, a Kirk patent invention; in some instances there is also a strike associated with this single double-escapement.  The chain fusee is quite unusual for Kirk clocks and this is the only example in which I have seen it.  The embossed brass case is 10 inches in diameter; note the imprinted manufacturer’s name on the boss at the bottom.  The contoured metal dial holds the likely original paint and hands.  The front of the case opens with a push-button on the left.  The movement is not signed; I cannot persuade it to run, and I don’t know if it is an 8-day or a 1-day.  There is part of a paper label on the back.  There are no sales of this model on LiveAuctioneers, and two on the Antique Clocks Identification and Price Guide, including this one in 2006 at R.O. Schmitt’s for $2800.  A non-fusee example sold in $2018 for $700.  This may be the only chain fusee example that exists.  $500–$1500.

I have been advised that this is an 8-day clock.   I have been further advised that a certain Jim Dubois wrote about a similar example with a chain fusee but in a wooden case.

Eagle-eyed Ed Sperling asked about the small opening in the dial above the numeral XII.  I overlooked this, but re-inspection shows that this opening is directly over the quarter-circle gear that adjusts the tension on the hairspring.  It may be that you adjust the tension by sticking a small blade through the hole to turn the gear to the left or right, or there may be a missing part or two that connects the gear to a lever that goes through the dial hole. 

Lastly, I note that a John Delaney penciled his name onto the back of this dial.  Geez, I see that guy's name a lot!