A Chauncey Jerome 30 Hr. weight driven Ogee clock circa 1850’s .

Details: A fine example of a Chauncey Jerome 30 Hr. weight driven Ogee clock circa 1850’s: It retains the original hand painted dial in moderately good condition. The reverse painted glass tablet is also original and in good condition.

The movement has been completely overhauled and is in good running order, striking the hour and half hour on coiled gong. The mahogany veneer case is in very good condition.

Chauncey Jerome (1793-1868) was a clockmaker in the early and mid-1800s. Although he subsequently made a fortune manufacturing and selling his clocks, he began his career in Waterbury, Connecticut, making dials for long-case clocks. Jerome learned much about clocks, concentrating mainly on clock cases .He then went to New Jersey to make seven-foot tall cases for clocks.
In 1816 he went to work for Eli Terry making "Patent Shelf Clocks", innovating machinery to make cases that were previously handmade.
He then decided to go into business for himself making cases which he traded with Terry for wooden movements.
In 1822 Jerome moved his business to Bristol, opening a small shop with his brother Noble, producing 30 hour and eight-day wooden clocks. By 1837 Jerome's company was selling more clocks than any of his competitors. A one-day wood-cased clock, which sold for six dollars, had helped put the company on the map.
In 1842 Jerome moved his clock-case manufacturing operation to New Haven. Three years later, following a fire that destroyed the Bristol plant, Jerome relocated the entire operation to the Elm City. Enlarging the plant, the company soon became the largest industrial employer in the city, producing 150,000 clocks annually. Because of his discovery of a method of stamping rather than casting gears, Jerome was able to produce the lowest-priced clocks in the world at the time.
In 1850 Jerome formed the Jerome Manufacturing Co. as a joint-stock company with Benedict & Burnham, brass manufacturers of Waterbury. In 1853 the company became known as the New Haven Clock Co., producing 444,000 clocks and timepieces annually.
Jerome's future should have been secure but in 1855 he bought out a failed Bridgeport clock company controlled by P.T. Barnum, which wiped him out financially, leaving the Jerome Manufacturing Co. bankrupt. Jerome never recovered from the loss. By his own admission, he was a better inventor than he was a businessman.
Travelling from town to town, Jerome took jobs wherever he could, often working for clock companies that had learned the business of clock making using Jerome's inventions. Returning to New Haven near the end of his life, he died, penniless, in 1868 at age 74.

Dimensions:
Length 26"
Width 15 1/4"
Depth 4 1/4"

Price: € 490

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