Machine Age Leans Toward Frank Lloyd Wright?

by Linda
(NH)

As I don't yet have it in hand, I can't tell you anything about the works, but this is a cast metal Ansonia, marked NY so it was made after Ansonia moved from Connecticut. I've been browsing through what I can find on the internet and found a similar, though simpler clock with the same shape. (It had the same 9:00, 12:00, 3:00 ridges around the dial.)

I rather inexplicably fell in love with this while looking for a non-irritating quarter hour striking clock. (I think the long-winded Westminster chimes would drive me batty before the morning was out.) I love beautiful wood, so I'm surprised I was charmed by this clock. I love the vaguely art nouveau decoration whose grace softens the sturdy, I-mean-business stance of the frame.

I would love to know the date and name of this clock. Perhaps someone knows the sculptor as it is so different from most of the Ansonias.

I have tried to load a picture, but if it doesn't come through, here's the best I can do at description.

Thanks for any knowledge you can offer!

MAKER: Ansonia, New York is marked on the face.

DATE: 1914 (my guess from internet photos, though seller suggested 1890's to 1910)

SIZE: 11.75" x 8.5" x 4"

FRAME: Bronze or iron, which may have had a gilt coating; not adamantine. (Casting is very precise--can that be done with iron?)

SHAPE: Essentially tambour, however the clock face is high over compact "feet".

DECORATION: Three large, square ridges, placed West, North and East of the face, consist of plain borders on either side of a row of large dots. The sides are circled by another, shallower band that has the effect of a ribbon with sculpted lyre-like patterns. Where those stop, three straight line bands extend over the "feet". Below the face is a floral bas-relief. At center is a grape hyacynth; on either side of this, leaves and three buds fill the frame. The back has a bolder, flattened leaf pattern below the door.

FACE: Enamel with Arabic numerals having only a slight flourish; hands have a diamond cut on the hour hand and a teardrop shape identifying the minute hand.

STRIKE: Hour and half hour with striker falling downward onto a slightly flattened. or half-flattened coil.