Mirror Clock Project Part 1 - Building The Case & Door

The original inspiration for this clock was largely based on the following three clocks:



I originally really loved the overall black look of the first clock (by Abiel Chandler), but I later changed my mind on the colour scheme. I preferred the shape of the columns on the third clock (by J. Chadwick), and the centre clock (by Leonard W Noyes) was just nice in general (as far as the colouring and aging).

A lot of research was done while building this clock. I needed as many source images as I could find, and by the end of the project, I had stockpiled close to 200 photos. These include construction details, corner rosettes, case sides (which are rarely photographed), antique mirror and paint textures, movements, and a plethora of painted tablet images.

I can't stress enough that if you plan to build a reproduction, you need to do as much research as possible to get the best results.

To get the most convincing effect possible on the case interior, I built this clock using old scrap pine boards with existing old surfaces (as much as possible). A lot of this wood was just junk boards that were found around the house while cleaning out the garage, and during renovations.



One of the drawbacks of using old wood, however, is that you will rarely have large usable (clear) pieces, you will also often have nail and screw holes in your boards. You must be very careful when running boards through machinery, since any missed nails can damage your tools, or become dangerous projectiles. Another disadvantage is that your old boards may be warped or twisted. If these issues are too difficult to work around, or you simply prefer to work with new kiln dried furniture grade wood, by all means, use what you're comfortable with.

I find that clocks in particular make good use of old boards because the majority of the pieces you need are fairly small compared to other woodworking projects. Other useful sources of wood are salvaged tongue and groove, barn boards, or old damaged furniture.

The Case

When building any clock, I tend to build around the movement that I plan to use. I had originally planned to use an ogee clock movement, striking on a cup bell for this clock, however, this too was changed later on (as you'll see later). For this reason, the case was built smaller than a traditional New Hampshire mirror clock to fit around an ogee clock movement. A standard NH mirror clock ranges slightly in size, but is generally 30" tall, and around 13.5" to 15" wide. This clock was scaled down to 26" high x 13.5" wide, and 2 1/2" deep (not including the backboard or the door). A standard clock also uses slightly thicker wood for the case body (3/4" thick). My clock uses 5/8" thick stock.

The case for a typical New Hampshire clock involves dovetails, or simple butt joints at the corners. A very select few use a half-blind dovetail (with the sides of the case showing no visible joinery). You may use whichever joint you like.

There is no need to be fancy or extremely accurate with the dovetailed corners. The dovetails on my case were loosely traced on a piece of carboard, and quickly cut and trimmed in about 10 minutes. It is, however, important to note that the tails should be on the top and bottom of the case, and not on the sides. If any of your joints are less than perfect, you can fill any gaps with thin wooden shims or slices of veneer. It will all be sanded, puttied, gessoed, and painted, later.



You can see here how the joinery looks, and how I usually use a full-scale drawing when building projects like this. You can also see that I was able to keep 2 old edges, while the other two had to be cut to get usable wood. All the small nail holes on the case sides and bottom get filled with wood putty and sanded smooth. In most other places (like the backboard) they stay exposed as "character".



The Door

When it comes to the construction of the doors on mirror clocks, it's harder to tell how some are put together. A lot of them (the majority) appear to have mitered corners, while a few have lap joints. I'm not sure if the mitered corners are held together with a hidden dowel, a slotted joint, or simply nails plus the corner blocks on the front, but I decided to use simple (and strong) lap joints for my door. As with the frame, the door is also 26" x 13.5", and built from 1 1/2" x 5/8" stock. If you are building a full sized copy, use 3/4" thick stock, and wider frames (1 3/4" to 2" wide). The doors on these clocks are QUITE thick compared to a lot of other clock doors I've come across, but they are all made this way, with some doors being nearly 2" with the corner blocks attached.

Build the rectangular frame first, and the centre divider will be made afterwards. The door frame was built from old wood, but I milled it flat (down to "fresh" wood) on both surfaces for better accuracy with my lap joints. For something like a door frame, try to find the nicest, clearest and flattest stock.



Once your rectangular door frame is glued, sand it flush on the corners (edges), and on both surfaces, then run a deep rabbet along the interior edge to fit your glass. I chose to do this with a router, and to cut out the rounded corners by hand with a sharp chisel. You want the rabbet deep enough to leave you with about 1/8" lip to hold the glass at the front of the door. Do not worry about the centre divider yet.

Once your frame is ready, prepare the piece that will be your centre divider. This is by far the most difficult, and potentially dangerous piece to manufacture, and I would suggest making a piece double or triple the length needed simply for safety. I made mine on the table saw, and I left a very small sliver on each side of the centre (forming essentially an M shape). The extra slivers were cut off afterwards with a chisel. My centre bar was 5/8" x 5/8", and I would suggest a 3/4" square bar for a full sized clock.



Next, you need to carefully trim off about an inch (or less depending on the width of your rabbet) of the top portion on each side. The centre portion needs to fit between the top part of the frame.



Once it's trimmed to size, you need to carefully cut out two mortises. I did this with a drill bit, and a 1/8" chisel.



The placement of your divider will depend on the proportions you want for the mirror, or around the dial. I used 7 1/2" down from the top of the opening (or around 9" down from the top of the door), which gave me a fairly rectangular dial glass. Some clocks have much more of a squarish dial glass. Use what looks good to you.

The completed door so far should resemble this:





Any small errors at this difficult-to-cut joint can just be filled-in with putty as I did here.



The routed inside corners get cut with a chisel.



The Turnings

Find a suitable closed-grain wood such as maple, clear pine, basswood, or poplar for the turnings, and prepare 2 blanks. The blanks should be the same width as your wood frames, and longer than the overall door to accommodate screws and lathe fittings. Glue your centre joint with a single sheet of newspaper, and secure both ends with wood plates with screws. These are "split turnings", which means you are making two halves together in one shot. Because they're glued together with paper, they risk flying apart, and you also can't mount them in the lathe normally, because your centre points will separate the two halves before you even get a chance to start. This is why you need the screwed "end caps".

I used maple, but poplar would have been a much better choice.





For the turnings, make a pattern to work from. There is a fairly wide variety of turnings used on these clocks, but most are along the lines of the three examples at the beginning. When it comes to the number of rings, most of the short ends have 2 or 3 (plus the tulip/blulb portion), but the centre sections can have as many as 9. Since my clock is slightly smaller, I decided to roughly divide the top turning in 3 sections, and from the size of those rings, (and keeping roughly the same proportions as most clocks) I ended up with 5 rings in the centre. I could have easily done 6 instead, but I preferred to have an odd number. This is another reason to have a full size drawing of your project. I drew one version (which didn't completely add up) on one side, and redrew the final version on the other side. After I had my pattern figured out, I cut it onto 1/8" scrap wood to bring with me to the lathe. If you are not good at figuring out patterns, you can simply blow up a photo of an existing clock and print it out (or just a section of it) at actual size.



It's useful to have two (or more) calipers, for a consistent column size, and turned ring size. I used the calipers for the rough sizing, and eyeballed everything else.



During the turning of the larger column, I ran into a problem with some wobble, and while adjusting the speed, the partially turned column got caught on the tool rest, and flew across the room.



I didn't want to completely start over, so I decided to see if I could reglue both halves and the broken chunk, re-mount it into the lathe, and finish it.



I was able to finish the turning with minimal visible damage, and any small nicks or glue joints would eventually be buried under gesso and gilding. Here are the split turnings trimmed to fit, along with the 4 corner blocks glued in place.



The Backboard

The backboard for the case was made of several old boards. Original clocks in most cases used a SINGLE WIDE BOARD for this, which is often around 14" wide. If you have access to wide old boards, use them, otherwise, try to have as few joints as possible. One joint down the centre would be the second best option. The backboard should be fairly thin, and it is sometimes feathered around the outside edges (on the back) with a plane. I made mine 3/8" thick. You can also go thinner, around 5/16", maybe even 1/4". Do not use plywood, no matter how tempting it may seem.



The back board is glued and nailed in place (preferably with square nails), with about 1/8" projecting from the sides, but flush at the top and bottom. No that is not a mistake, and yes that is contrary to modern building methods that take into account wood movement. Back then, they didn't seem to care as much about wood movement, and all the original clocks I've seen have had the backboards firmly glued and nailed across the grain (top, bottom, and edges). With this building method, there's a good chance that the backboard will split, but I don't see that as a big issue (just more "character"). If you really don't like this, you can install your back panel into a rabbet, and glue fake side mouldings to the edges of the case to look like the backboard "edges", but it won't look historic/correct. Some clocks have these two side projections cut square (basically just 1/8" reveal similar to what's seen on some Banjo clocks), while others are rounded over into a semi-circle profile. I chose to have mine rounded (see below).

This photo shows the case with the back attached, and with a few coats of gesso applied (more on gesso later).





Part 2 will cover the process of gilding the turned columns.

Auction

I went to an auction yesterday. The star attraction for me was a stunning French Comtoise longcase clock. I was really hoping I'd be able to take it home. Sadly, I was outbid on it, but I still wanted to share some of the auction items, and my two purchases.

First off, the star of the show, and the only reason that I dragged myself out of bed at 7am on a Saturday, the longcase. This is a French longcase clock along with its original grain-painted case. The clock dates from around 1860-1870, and it was in fairly decent condition.







The case on it was pretty warped, very flimsy, and thin, but I've been told that they are all made this way. It's sort of like a fragile house of cards holding up a 30Lb movement. The grain painting and surface decorations were absolutely wonderful, and in excellent shape. The dial and pendulum were also beautifully painted (in the original paint) and in great shape. These are just thin stamped brass, and they get damaged very easily.

Some of the problems with the clock, however, were not going to be easy fixes. One of the major problems was that the original hinges of the trunk door were broken away. This means that there are chunks of wood missing from the door, and that some of the original hardware is now missing. The way these hinges work was basically just an eye bolt, with "L" shaped bent wires sticking out of the case body. These are very simple hinges, and you can just lift-off the doors if you need to.

Other small issues were that some of the boards on it were severely warped, like the left upper panel shown above. There was also a deep crack through the right side of the case which would have been impossible to repair. The clock also has no key, which is usually a very large crank. You can buy new ones, but old original keys are always much better.

I was willing to pay quite a bit for this clock, but nothing crazy. I had told myself 600$ max, but when it came up for sale, I bid up to 650$, and lost to a bidder who got it for 700$. I was pretty bummed out after that.

The last detail I'll mention about the clock before I move on, is that it was much taller in person than I had expected. I'm 6' tall, and I think the dial bottom was at about my height. The clock was probably a little over 7 feet tall.

At the auction there was also another longcase clock, an Art Deco style German one probably from around 1900-1930.



I wasn't really interested in this one, because I'm not a super big fan of Art Deco, and I don't think I'd like having this huge piece of furniture that I didn't absolutely love. It sold pretty cheap at 130$ to an antiques reseller (I spoke to him later on). It wasn't until after the auction was over that I truly realized how terrible the condition of this clock was. The man who bought it was trying to move it onto a dolly, and the entire top part of it was loose and broken from the rest. You could see screws into the wood that had been added (and that weren't holding it together anymore). I also noticed that the top door hinge had broken right through the wood side of the door and it had been very poorly reglued, and there was also a break in the wood case behind the hood door. On top of all this, I also saw that the two lock plates on the case looked like they were missing, so even though the locks and key were still there, you couldn't keep the doors shut. It also had just general problems visible from the start, like the chipped upper crown, and loose mouldings everywhere. Besides all this, the veneer on this clock was ABSOLUTELY gorgeous. I'm not even sure if it was burled walnut, or some other burled wood, but it was some of the nicest cuts I've seen on any similar clock (which is saying a lot). Even the sides were just as nice as the front (a lot of clocks and veneered furniture use cheaper or plainer veneers on the sides).

There were several other mantle clocks at the sale, but only two were worth photographing. This first one was a mint condition Seth Thomas "Black Mantle Clock". I don't know what model it was, but it had a Seth Thomas label on the back, and the plates were stamped ST, so it was all original. A lot of these clocks have been heavily refinished, so it's always nice to see original ones like this in good shape. I bid on it, but I wasn't willing to go over 100$ on it. Some are selling for much, much less on eBay these days. I think it sold for 120$ or 130$.



Another Art Deco piece. This one was a Perivale Westminster chime clock, from the UK. I'm told that it's not the best brand to look for if you want a Westminster clock. I think it sold for 75$. IT was in very good shape, and it ran, because it started up during the auction and kept ringing during the day. So did the Seth Thomas, actually.



If you're curious to see some of the other items from the auction, and what I DID buy, go visit http://my1923foursquare.blogspot.ca/2015/02/auction.html.

As the auction was starting two wrap-up, I got a chance to talk to the guy who bought the Comtoise. He's a local collector as well, and he seemed like a really nice guy. I helped him take the clock apart (we had a VERY hard time unhooking the pendulum, because the mounting piece had a bit of a curve to it in the opposite direction that was needed for easy unhooking). He tried for a good 5 minutes, then let another lady we were chatting with try, and then I offered to try and I managed to get it off safely. Once the bob was off, we noticed an old dark paper label on the back. It said something like "Balancier...??? fleurs" and I can't remember the city or town name. Basically it indicated that it was a floral model pendulum.

He was trying to get the clock case onto a dolly, but it really wasn't going to work, so I offered to help him carry it to his van. I think I would have been really pissed if he managed to ruin the case just by trying to leave the building with it. Plus, I wanted to be nice, in case he decides to come to me for repairs (I gave him my info, but I never even got his name).

***

Work continues on the mirror clock project. The case is not finished because my planer blades are gone out for sharpening, but the beautiful gilded door is finished, and so is the ornate reverse painted glass tablet for the dial, and I have a custom movement that a clockmaker friend is making for the clock, so stay tuned!

Here's a teaser photo for now.

A New Project

I'm currently working on a new project. It's a reproduction of a New Hampshire mirror clock. One of the reasons I've decided to work on this project (instead of finishing other ones) is to practice some of the restoration skills and techniques that I've learned over the past few years. One of the other reasons is that I'm in the mood to paint, and most of this clock will have painted surfaces. It's also winter, so I can't work on any large house projects, or do too much woodworking in the freezing cold shop.

This clock will be a fairly simple build (I've been working on it for a few days and the main case is nearly done), but the real challenge on this clock will be the treatment of surfaces to achieve a realistic antique look on what's basically a brand new clock. The look I'm aiming for is a period 1820s clock in good, but not perfect shape. This means that I want it to have a few blemishes, imperfections, and "character" but without going overboard. That said, I'm also making an effort to make the clock not so convincing that someone later on could pass it off as a fake. For this reason, I'm choosing to use one of my spare ogee clock movements in the clock. I'll go into more details about that later.

On this clock, I want to practice gilding on gesso (something I've never done before), antiquing new wood to match old wood (ie: getting that perfect shade of old reddish brown), making a convincing silvered mirror, and reverse painting in bronze powders.

I also want to print my own antique style label for the clock, paint a custom dial, and possibly even cast some custom lead weights.

There's still a lot to do on this clock, but I'll be doing my best to document the process as I go along. The next step will be the backboard, and the turnings.

Hopefully I'll have some photos to share soon.

A Rare Find (AKA: The "Mystery" Wooden Works Clock)

I try not to overuse the term "rare" since so many people throw the term around meaninglessly, but in this case, it's not an exaggeration.

I bought this clock earlier this year (May 2014), and I meant to post it here sooner. I came across it on eBay, and since it's just barely even a case, it didn't attract too many bidders. I usually AVOID buying this kind of clock because putting it all back together will cost far more than buying a complete original clock. If you assume that a movement will cost around 80-100$ plus shipping, plus a painted dial to fit, at around 50$ plus shipping, in addition to hands, a bob, a pair of weights, recreating a backboard, fitting antique glass, and rebuilding the missing top, it hardly seems worth the trouble and expense. Especially since it's such a plain case.

HOWEVER, what attracted me to this particular clock case is it's incredible rarity. WHY is it rare? That can be a bit hard to explain, but in short, because of the way that the door is divided, and the lack of columns. More on this shortly.

As a quick side note, I just want to point out that just because an antique is rare, it doesn't necessarily make it more valuable. I would think that if this clock were complete, and placed in an auction, it would fetch about the same price as similar wooden works clocks, but I could be wrong.

The original eBay photos were quite decent, so I've included them along with some of my own.





The latch is a typical "key" shaped one from around the late 1830s, and into the 1840s. It has been damaged and bent downwards.















Here are a few of my photos. The case's main body is close to the size of a standard ogee clock, and not the normal height of a wooden works clock. The main case is 26" x 15 1/2" x 4 1/2". The upper door opening for the dial is 9 3/4" square, so the dial would likely have been around 10" x 10".









The inscription behind the central door panel (enhanced below) appears to read W. C. Kilbreath Cumberland Clock Repairer one year (Good). It would have been nice to have a date with this note. I was able to find one mention of a W. C. Kilbreath in Cumberland Ohio in an old National Tribune paper dated Jan 30th 1896, but that's all I could find.

EDIT: News! I think I found him! Unfortunately there's no mention of clock repair, but it's highly possible he worked on clocks after he retired.

Name: William Calvin KILBREATH
Birth: 18 SEP 1828 in Booths Ferry, VA. (W.Va)
Death: 30 OCT 1900
Burial: Cumberland Cem., Cumberland, OH

OBITUARY: JEFFERSONIAN Oct. 30, 1900
After an illness of but one week, with congestion of the lungs the venerable Wm. Calvin Kilbreath died at his home north of Cumberland at about 9:00 p.m., Tues. aged 72. He was born near Booth's Ferry, VA (now W.VA) sept. 18, 1828 and was married to Mary Nelson on Sept. 9, 1851. To this union eleven children were born, nine of whom survive. On the 7th of Aug., 1862 he enlisted in Co. B, 97th O.V.I and served 14 months, mostly as a hospital nurse. He was a faithful soldier, doing duty wherever assigned. Mr. Kilbreath was a member of the Presbyterian Church and was affiliated with the O.U.A.M. and G.A.R. His patriotism knew no bounds and upon every occasion he delighted to honor and display the flag for which he fought. He had been a resident of this vicinity many years and was highly esteemed by all who knew him. Beside his aged and grief stricken wife the following named children and 16 grandchildren remain: Peter N. of Cambridge; James C. of Cadiz; Margaret A. Smith of Spratt; Ella M. Moore of Zanesville; Martha E. Fox of Cumberland; U.G. of North Baltimore; C.A. and Dora O. Yerian of Cumberland and Wm. H. of Buffalo, OH. Funeral at the Pres. Church, 1:00 by Rev. H. C. Morledte. Remains laid to rest in Cumberland Cemetery.





Now, as I said, part of the reason this clock is so rare is because of the way that the door is divided into 3 sections. Very few clocks have doors with narrow panels in the centre. Several will have divisions at the bottom, like the clocks made by Silas Hoadley, which usually have a mirror below the dial, and a small painted tablet at the bottom with the "Time is Money" inscription. Almost no other clockmakers used 3 part divided doors. Many clocks have 2 doors, or built-in wooden panels that separate two doors (or a fixed panel under the door), like Putnam Bailey clocks, but none are divided like this particular clock. It's also highly unusual to see a wooden works clock case without turned columns, triangular columns, flat columns, reeded columns, or even flat/carved columns (like some rare Bishop & Bradley clocks).

I have archived (over the past decade) thousands of photos of rare and interesting clocks, both in the form of books (dozens) and from online sources (private collections, eBay listings, online auction houses, etc) and after hours of sifting through these, I found only ONE very similar clock made by Elbridge Atkins (sometimes misspelled Eldridge Atkins). The clock can be seen here:



It's not identical, only similar. It has a centre divided door, plain side pieces (no columns) and has a painted eagle tablet rather than a mahogany panel. Two other differences are the width of the side pieces flanking the door, and the use of an ivory keyhole escutcheon and "Terry" style lock instead of a simple catch. My clock has evidence that it had top chimneys, splat, and return pieces, but I can only guess what they might have looked like.

Just recently, I came across a second Elbridge Atkins clock which was sold in 2009, and that looks nearly identical to the one above. The main difference is the dial. The hands are not original.



Elbridge Atkins clocks on their own appear to be quite scarce. I have found only a few examples. This one is a typical column and splat wooden works, but it shows the label, and provides another possible splat design.





Lastly, a very unusual find was this very poor photo of an Elbridge Atkins "Bevel Case" clock, with a 3 section divided door. Bevel case clocks are early versions of Ogee clocks, and often have wooden works movements, and date to the 1830s or 1840s.



And that's all the information I've been able to gather. I'll be able to easily recreate some chimneys for the top based on the shadows, but I will have to guess the correct splat and side return designs unless I can find other similar clocks to work from. I'd appreciate any information you may have about this clock (including any other Elbridge Atkins clocks).

Making Mirrors

It's been quite a while that I've wanted to experiment with Krylon's "Looking Glass" spray paint, but unfortunately due to some restrictions, it wasn't being sold in Canada until very recently when I found some at our local Michael's store (I looked for it every time I visited the store).

Over the past several years, I've seen some amazing mirrored projects using this product, and I thought it might be an excellent product for use on antique clocks. Some of the projects I had seen included old leaded glass windows turned into mirrors, as well as many imitation mercury glass vases and bobbles. I thought it might also be fun to use old glass clock bezels and turn them into convex mirrors. The uses for this product are nearly endless. The only requirement is that it should be applied to the back side of any glass surface.

One other benefit to this product is that you can apply a layer of "antiquing" to your clear glass before the silvering is applied. If you search for tutorials online (as I did) you might quickly find that most effects simply call for a mist of water (or vinegar and water) over the glass, followed by the spray paint, and then cleaning off the water drops once the paint is dry.

On most of the tutorials, the effect is WAY too exaggerated and it doesn't look real. I wanted something more believable. I decided to try several other techniques and experiments on some scrap glass pieces. All the samples are backed with flat black paint.



In the photo above, you can see the 5 samples I made (and there are endless other variations or combinations you can try). Each will be explained individually below.

Since mirrors are notoriously difficult to photograph, I did my best to catch a few angles.





SAMPLE 1:



In this first sample, I mixed some black and brown acrylic paint, and thinned it with water. I then used a stiff bristle brush to "flick" paint onto the glass. This gives a subtle, yet realistic spotting effect.

SAMPLE 2:



Sample 2 is one of the most interesting and visually striking experiments I tried. It's simply a very diluted black watercolour wash. Because the water doesn't easily stick to the glass surface, you're left with a very random pattern of shapes. The effect is transparent, but also has a fairly strong "matted" appearance depending on the angle (see reflection photos above). An entire mirror done with this technique would be pretty unusable, but definitely very interesting (and very old/damaged looking).

SAMPLE 3:



This is the standard water mist method, using a very fine sprayer. What's so nice about this method is that it creates very realistic "peeling" edges around each "hole". The only problem with this technique is that it's very hard to create a realistic wear pattern. Either there's way too many spray droplets everywhere, or the droplets are too small, or too large. For this technique, you just spray water onto the glass, apply several thin coats of mirror paint, and then you wipe (pat down) the water drops where the paint hasn't adhered. The paint dries extremely fast, so you only need to wait a few minutes to do this, but be careful not to smear the water around. If you do, there's no way to fix it, and you'll need to start over.

SAMPLE 4:



Samples 4 and 5 were the least successful of the 5. This one shows how the glass might look with the water droplet technique from sample 3, with just another light spray of mirror paint applied after wiping off the water (to make the effect more subtle). It might be nice to try this effect on a larger surface. It would likely give pale ghostly dots all over the surface.

SAMPLE 5:

This sample was trying to imitate mirrors that have a darkened gradient around the exterior edges. I used spray paint for this, but it didn't come out quite as I had hoped. The spray was too wide, and it may have needed to be darker. This effect might work better on a larger area, and using a better spray paint or nozzle.

Armed with these samples, I decided that the most realistic effect would be a simple pattern of painted dots (sample 1). I had one particular clock in mind, and I decided to go ahead and try it out. The glass had already been cut and prepared for the clock (antique glass), and I just had to clean it. Here are the final results.





As you can see, the painted effect looked much better on the smaller samples. The effect is quite foggy, and not quite as reflective as I had expected. The dots also didn't show up as much as I had expected.

Here's a fairly good close-up of the glass. You can clearly see the spots, as well as the distinct "painted texture" that the mirror paint produces.



One of the only other methods I've tried for making hand-made mirrors is the technique that uses actual sheets of silver leaf (it can be fake silver leaf as well). That method gives much better results, but it's also a lot more time consuming, more difficult/delicate, and the main reason I didn't like that method was that all the edges of the silver sheets show up in the finished mirror. This method follows instructions from Tom Temple's "Extreme Restoration" book. It's an excellent book for learning to properly (and invisibly) repair clocks and other antiques. You can also find other tutorials online for this method, so I'm only going to give a very brief overview on this method.

These are OLD photos from nearly a decade ago. I thought I had them already uploaded to an online photo album, but I couldn't find them, so I dug through my old files and found them again.

The first steps involve laying two layers of silver leaf onto the glass using a special sizing/gilding water.



Second layer:



Once it's dry, the back is polished using soft cotton and gentle pressure.



The back of the mirror is then painted to protect it, and to prevent the silver (or imitation silver) from tarnishing or degrading.

The finished mirror is quite beautiful, highly reflective, and gives a realistic appearance of a mercury glass mirror. As I said before, the only drawback is that the lines between the sheets of silver leaf are visible. Also note that this mirror was done on antique wavy glass.

New Purchase - John Birge & Co. 1848 Column & Cornice Clock

Here is a stunning clock I was lucky enough to find for a decent price on eBay.



The clock is a John Birge & Co. column and cornice clock. This is a rather large 8 day weight driven clock. I already own a nearly identical Birge & Fuller clock, and I adore it. This clock would have been made in 1848, following Mr. Fuller's death in 1847, and just before John Birge partnered-up with Ambrose Peck (forming Birge & Peck in 1849). It's rare to have an early clock that can be dated to exactly within a one year span.

I purchased this clock mostly because of 2 factors. 1: It had amazing original glass tablets, and 2: It had a low price. Otherwise, the clock has several problems. It has no weights (these are expensive to replace because of the shipping costs), the original hands are missing (and very hard to find), there's no pendulum bob, the movement has several botched repairs, there are lots of veneer repairs and case work that needs to be done (one of the first things you might have noticed are the incredibly crooked columns), and the bottom part of the label is completely gone (however the large company name is still there).

That said, I think that the tablets and beautiful mahogany veneers make this a clock well worth restoring.

One problem that I had when I purchased this clock was the jerk who was selling it parted it out. He sold the hands, dial, case, and movement separately, and it appears that the original weights weren't with it.

What made it even more annoying was that the seller sold the hands first, followed by the dial, then the case, and finally the movement. I didn't know if I would win the case, so I didn't want to pay "insane money" on the hands, and they sold for 26$ USD. The dial was marked as just a "wooden works dial" but having seen a LOT of Birge clocks (having done research on them for my Birge & Fuller restoration) I was 99% sure this dial went with the clock (which it does). I won the dial (20.51$), then won the case (154.50$), and finally the movement (76.00$). If the hands had been sold AFTER the case, I would have bid much more on them to keep them with the clock.

Birge Clock Hands (used by Birge & Mallory, Birge & Fuller, Birge & Peck, John Birge, as well as a few other companies like William S. Johnson):



Everything together, including shipping came up to 360$ CAD (321$ USD), which is an excellent price for an early Column & Cornice. I love my Birge & Fuller column clock so much that I've always thought that if I could get another one for under 500$ I'd go for it, so I'm extremely pleased with this purchase.

I was worried that the glasses might break during shipping, but the clock arrived safely.

As a side note, I will say that in over a decade of clock collecting, and hoarding images of original painted tablets, I have never come across this particular design (centre tablet). The bottom tablet is a typical freehand design around a Fenn stencil in silver, but the centre glass is entirely freehand, and just gorgeous.

This clock will be getting the royal treatment, and I've already started working on it. The entire crown is messed-up, and the entire case will be taken apart. Luckily there's only very minor work needed on the doors, so those will be easy fixes. The dial is also largely perfect, except for a dark spot which I will try to clean off.

Stay tuned!