
Clocks · Clock
Chelsea Clock Co. Ca.1905-1909 Ship's Bell Clock
- Maker / attribution
- Chelsea Clock Co. (maker)
- Date
- c. 1905
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- United States
- Object type
- Clock
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 67727452
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 311, Fine & Dec Arts, Asian and Ethnographic, Grant Zahajko Auctions, LLC (2019), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- Chelsea Clock Co. Ca.1905-1909 Ship's Bell Clock (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 67727452), this is a clock by Chelsea Clock Co., made in United States, dated c. 1905. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. The record is illustrated with 4 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Lot description — Grant Zahajko Auctions, LLC
Chelsea Clock Co. ship's bell clock. Serial No.41875, circa 1905-1909. Clock face measures 5-5/8" diameter; total diameter is 7.25". Clock is 2.75" thick. Good to very good condition. Not tested for running order or accuracy. With key. We ship most items in this auction in house and gladly combine shipping if possible of multiple items.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Related records
Clocks · c. 1940
Chelsea Bakelite ship's clock. circa 1940
LiveAuctioneers auction archive
Clocks · c. 1901
Chelsea Ship's Bell Clock Retailed by RIGGS & BRO., PHILADELPHIA Boston, circa 1901 Bezel
LiveAuctioneers auction archive
Clocks · 1905–1919
Mantel clock given by President Theodore Roosevelt to William L. Houston, United States, 1905–1919
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Clocks · 1920–2013
Bank clock and sign of the Citizens Savings Bank & Trust Co., Nashville, 1920–2013
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Clocks · 1925–1940
Brown phenolic electric digital clock with `TELE-VISION' on the face. Made by Penwood Numechron Co., U.S.A., c. 1930. Art Deco design.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1934
Synchronous mains electric clock of the self-starting type, with digital display. Made by The Westinghouse Electric Supply Co. USA. Early c.1934's
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · c. 1900
Alarm Clock - Ansonia Clock Co, 'Bee', USA, c. 1900
Museums Victoria, Melbourne
Clocks · c. 1900
Alarm Clock - Seth Thomas Clock Co, USA, c. 1900
Museums Victoria, Melbourne
