Ball holds key to clock’s mystery

Mystery clocks have been popular since the 18th century. The clock seems to have no mechanism, yet keeps time.

One of the most famous is the "swinging-arm clock." A tall classical figure, usually bronze, holds some long rods with a pendulum bob on the bottom and a ball with a clock face on the top. The pendulum swings back and forth and the clock keeps time. These clocks were made for display in jewelry-store windows because their motion attracted customers.

One famous example was made by the Ansonia Clock Co. of Ansonia, Conn. It is known as "Gloria." The winged figure of a woman in a revealing draped dress holds the large clock ball in her right hand. How the clock works is not really a mystery. The clock mechanism is inside the ball. When wound, the pendulum moves back and forth for about eight days.

Ansonia made these clocks in the early 1900s using different figures, including "Huntress," "Juno" and "Fisher." The Gloria clock sold for $5,175 at a recent James D. Julia auction.

Q: I bought a rattan-covered stoneware jar at a flea market and hope you can help me date it. The paper label on the bottom has Chinese words but it also says, "Shanghai Handicrafts" and "Made in the People's Republic of China."

A: Your jar, marked with an English-language label, was made for export. The People's Republic of China was not the official English-language name for mainland China until 1949. But trade with the United States did not resume until after President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972. And once the United States established full diplomatic relations with China in 1979, labels on exported goods read "Made in China." So your jar most likely dates from the mid-1970s.

Terry Kovel's column is syndicated by King Features. Write to: Kovels, (Las Vegas Review-Journal), King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.