A Wonderful Find - Period Finial

Over the weekend, I went to a flea market with a friend of mine and I made three purchases. One was a small antique mirror, another was a No.1 burner and chimney for one of my oil lamps, and the third was this wonderful antique clock finial.



This is likely a banjo clock finial, but it could also be a longcase clock finial. It's a decent size at around 5 5/8" tall (not counting the stem), 2 1/4" wide in the centre, and 3 1/8" spanning the wings.



I spotted this sitting in a basket, and I immediately grabbed it. The price was right, and I paid for it immediately.

For those who might not be too excited about this finial, or who have never had the misfortune to shop for "just the right hardware", I can tell you that this isn't something you stumble upon too often. Period reproduction brasses tend to cost an arm and a leg, and they're only available by mail order, so shipping must be added to the price. Regular spun brass (cheap) longcase clock finials can't be found for less than 20-30$ each, and the really nice ones are more in the neighbourhood of 150$ each. The same is true for quality locks, knobs, handles, and hinges. This particular finial is not a pattern I've ever encountered before, which makes it even more rare and unusual. The eagle matches many found on banjo clocks, but the urn portion is very different.



The Greek Key trim is an unusual feature, but very much appropriate for the period. I estimate that this finial is from around 1830, possibly a bit earlier. It's hard to tell for certain.



The back of the finial confirmed that this is not a modern reproduction, since it has stress cracks and casting flaws. You can see how the Greek Key banding is made from a separate strip of brass.





The hollow finial is made up of several components which are held together with a central stem. The stem is threaded into the base of the eagle, and fits into the turned base.





I will likely fit this to a reproduction clock case at some point. More than likely a banjo clock.

Test Stand (Video)

I just shot a video of the current clocks on my test stand and I thought I'd share it on YouTube (since I have quite a few clockies on it), and with my Clockmaking Blog buddies (that's you guys!)



I will probably go over more details about the custom built clock test stand in the future, but here's a quick breakdown:

The main part of the stand is two rectangular frames that are glued together in each corner with a lap joint. The rest of the stand is simply two bottom legs (each made of two pieces glued together), and two upper braces. The entire thing is designed with the use of knock-down hex key bolts, and can be stored away fairly easily. The stand is also equipped with adjustable feet on the bottom. I made a set of 6 notched cleats that sit on the top, and can be used to hold seatboards or to support loose longcase type movements. In addition, movements that are back-mounted can be set up on boards (as in the case of the Vienna movement on the right) and clamped to the vertical rails.

At maximum capacity, you could probably have as much as 4 clocks on top, and up to two smaller movements per vertical rail, so 12 movements? I probably wouldn't ever need to set up that many at a time, though.

The main frames are 36" x 48" which is a decent size for general use. It could easily be made wider. The wood I used is unfinished White Ash that was barely milled from 4/4 stock (so the pieces are between 7/8" and 15/16" thick). Ash was used because it's an incredibly strong yet incredibly cheap hardwood. You could easily put about 300 Lbs on this stand with no issues.