My grandfather's clock

It will be money well spent Galen. I'm sure it will keep on ticking for a long time to come.

We have a grandmother's clock that we keep in the hall, and a few years it stopped for no reason and I never got around to getting it mended then one day it started and has been going ever since - odd that.

How lovely and great to have the room to house it. From my viewings of various antique 'shows' clocks seem to hold their value nicely. I have a friend a retired pathologist who had two clocks so turned the inside of one into a cocktail cabinet. his neighbour a retired dentist who collects clocks and has about 15 long case clocks which he restores called him a philistine.

My mother made my father leave two early ones behind when we moved house. I would have loved one of them which is earlier than mine which probably dates to about 1820 which makes it contemporaneous with my present house which is rather nice.
The house it came from is an Elazabethan Manor House in WestBromwich which I think used to belong to the Lane family. It now belongs to Sandwell

I suppose a pathologist couldn't help disembowelling an object!

Galen There's a song on those lines!

My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,
Many hours had he spent while a boy;
And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four when he entered at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopped short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
His life's seconds numbering,
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
It stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

My grandfather said that of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found;
For it wasted no time, and had but one desire —
At the close of each week to be wound.
And it kept in its place — not a frown upon its face,
And its hands never hung by its side.
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

It rang an alarm in the dead of the night —
An alarm that for years had been dumb;
And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight —
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
His life's seconds numbering,
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
It stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died

1876 by Henry Clay Work,

I know!
(I also know the rude version!)

Elegran. I have just sung this the whole way through . Haven't heard it since school.

Galen that sounds an awful lot of money for the cleaning. (Did you mean 'etching' ? If so I don't know what that is.) My late father used to clean his longcase clock, said to be Queen Anne, with a feather dipped in oil.

A chap who comes to folky things hereabouts sings 'My grandfather's ferret' to the same tune which is very funny.

My grandad used to do the same. Not etching typed overhauled. New bushes (whatever they are) etc

Given that a clock has moving parts they cannot be expected to work forever without bearings (or whatever they are on a clock) wearing out.

If it's a clock that might be worth £4 to £5 K the the amount it will cost to restore it is not so bad proportionately although it is expensive.

Keep ticking along, Galen

I intend to. Darling daughter has her name on it after my ticker has stopped ticking!

I have a very ornate French mantelpiece clock that belonged to my maternal grandmother. Its not really to my taste, although it always fascinated me as a child. However it's sentimental/emotional value to me is so strong that if it needs repairing, it gets repaired, regardless of sale value, which I only discovered recently is now significant, but not to be compared with Galens grandfather's clock.

I doubt my grandmother paid much for it - she couldn't afford to - and when she had it much of the gilding was gone. My aunt had it regilded and it is now very bright, but as I said, it is its emotional value to me that matters

We had a 'grandmother' clock which I remember as a teenager stood in the hall...it was presented to my Welsh grandfather and had a brass plate on saying it was from a temperance organisation. I wish I could remember which!
Sometime I will get on the local newspaper archives and see if there was a report of it being presented. It was after 1900 so the Wrexham paper, although it mentions other clock presentations before 1900, doesn't go far enough on the free British Library version!

We have two special clocks. One is my grandmother's grand mother clock which is probably late Victorian and very plain. I have known it all my life either at granny's or my parent's house! I love it's deep slow measured tick and the Westminster chimes! The other is an art deco mantle clock that DH and I treated ourselves two about 15 years ago.

The problem is that the long case clock gains and the art deco one loses, so we've often have to look at our phones to see what time it actually is!

I've just googled Joseph Gent Walsall and apparently he was clockmaking 1805-1815 which I reckon makes it about 200 years old and previctorian.
I think I might need more than that spending on me at that Agra!

Age! B ipad

My Taid (grandfather) bought long case clocks for all his children. I have my mum's. He never paid more then 2/6d for one. Might be worth a tad more now, but I'd never sell it.

When I was a child, I used to love visiting my great aunt`s house and hearing her grandmother clock chiming. She said that she`d won it at the seaside playing housey housey (bingo), many years before. She told me that when she died the clock would be mine, but she actually left it to my mother, who couldn`t stand the chimes, so turned them off. Years later, when my mother went into a care home, she asked my youngest sister to look after the clock at her house. My sister also hated the chimes, so they very sadly stayed silent. After my mother died, the clock was sold as part of her estate, as nobody in the family wanted it (I wasn`t asked!) I often think of my Aunt Rose`s clock, and hope that whoever has it now loves it and has turned the chimes back on.

PS, was it the Mudlarks who sang My Granfather`s Clock?