Antique St. Nicholas Long Case Floor Clock ~ Extremely Rare ~ 1800 France

Description: St. Nicholas Tall Case ClockCirca 1800Read Description Carefully French country Louis XVI style antique tall clock case carved from mixed species of wood and finished as dark walnut. These types of clocks are called St. Nicholas or Picardy, because they were made in St. Nicolas d'Aliermont at Haute-Normandie region or province Picardie in Northern France but most American customers refer to all French provincial tall clocks as “Morbier” even Morbier (or Morez) clocks come from Comté region and are named after the place where they were produced and not the clock or movement type, as many people believe. St. Nicholas clocks, due to the short pendulum, have an elegant and very narrow case, compared to Morbier cases, which commonly have violin-shaped sides in order to accommodate a large pendulum and St. Nicholas clocks are much more rare and hard to find. Because of its narrow case, this St. Nicholas clock can easily fit in the corner of the room and will take up minimal space there, but will look great in the center of the wall too – in both cases we recommend to attach it to the wall with a couple of screws for stability. This early 19th Century classical example of a St. Nicholas clock measures about 87” tall, 19” wide at the widest point and protrudes about 6”. However, it is only 11 1/4” wide in the middle part because it is constructed for a short pendulum and the lower case is for the weights only. Case is carved with a garden basket and flowering urn and laurel leaves on the crest. Unfortunately, the dark wood does not look as good on the pictures as it does in real life, so we took the top outside to make detailed pictures in the daylight. Porcelain enameled dial is signed Labarre a Villy-le-Bas and shows some spider cracks and restorations around the rim, visible with a close inspection but partially covered with carved door and even from the short distance the dial displays nicely. The case is in perfect restored condition, complete with original hardware, freshly polished and ready for display. Clocks like these sell in antique stores at about $7,500-18,000 price range, depending on the store location, when they are complete with the original movement. This clock currently does not have the original movement but has a quality contemporary Hermle German made movement, which runs on batteries. It produced an electronically generated Westminster chime, which sounds exactly as good antique clocks sound and has a pendulum, which moves back and forth behind the glass in glazed window below the dial, exactly like antique clocks, but just doesn’t make a loud ticking noise, keeps better time and doesn’t have to be wound. The pendulum is new, we made it for this clock to look like an old pendulum, but because it has to be very light to be moved by this movement it was made from the very thin brass and resin, painted as bronze. Movement strikes on the hour with hammer strick to Brass Bell. We found this movement very convenient for our personal needs and sold several clocks in our store, which were altered this way. This small movement keeps perfect time, and leaves the lower case empty because it has no weights. Because the movement is not original, our selling price is greatly reduced, so you are buying the case only and the current, not original movement, comes free with purchase, but if you want we can supply you with an extra movement for an extra cost, where you can choose a quality contemporary chain driven movement (from $150 to about $600) or original French 19th century Comtoise movement (starting from about $1000). Therefore, you can get an “all original” authentic clock with an antique movement for less than $4000 delivered to your doorsteps. However, from our experience of being in business for many years we have learned that many of our customers just do not want to deal with old movements and buy antique clocks for their look only, in which case this sale will be your best bet. You will get a quiet working clock with chime and moving pendulum in authentic antique case for a fraction of the cost. If you do not tell, nobody will believe that this clock movement is running on batteries because it looks and sounds so natural.

Price: 2100 USD

Location: Wauconda, Illinois

End Time: 2023-10-23T22:21:07.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD