C.1855, Boston Clock Co, A. D. Crane's, Astronomical Timepiece
, in skeleton form, year running, and in outstanding original condition with old dome. Indications include a rocking shade showing variations in sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset, full visual lunar position and phase, time of high tide, day date and month, (fully perpetual). Crane expert Fred Shelley does a detailed job of describing this rare model in Bulletin supplement No. 16, 1987, and a copy is included with this lot. Like other examples in the article, the travelling horizon shade on this clock is gilded, and was not painted like the example on the cover of the supplement. Secondly, our clock has decorations cast into the individual pieces of the pendulum (Crane has made them plain, with dots, with scrolls and with hand enameled scenes). For the variations we see, we also know that there are less than half dozen of these clocks extant. One is in the Smithsonian, Shelley has one, one is in a private collection in White Plains, and there is this one; others unknown to us. Height of clock 20 inches, with dome and wooden base, 24 inches
Clock types
