New Haven Clock Co., New Haven, Conn., "The Mountebank", 8 day, time and strike, rare automaton "Dancing Skeleton" novelty clock, c1905
These rare clocks were apparently a short production run on special order, as we do not find them in the catalogs. The "theater style" case houses two movements. The lower is a regular pendulum striking movement that trips a separate movement above that causes the skeleton figure to perform acrobatics. Both movements are assembled from the same New Haven plate blanks, but with different trains. This example retains what appears to be its original paint with some age loss. Original dial has loss to the paint surrounding the numbers. The hands are original. A paper label is pasted on the back door. There is some wear to the gilt metal ornaments. We sold one of these in the May 2009 auction, item 94. That example was probably refinished. Ht 22"
Clock types
