Artifact Spotlight: Our Ansonia Mercury Mantel Clock
Known as the Mercury, because of the prominent figure of the Roman God Mercury, this Ansonia Clock, was patented on June 14, 1881, and made in New York. It appears the clock at Thomas Wolfe Memorial is missing the left wing on the helmet. Featured on the face of the clock above the numeral 6, is a tiny “A” in a diamond. This was a signature trademark of Ansonia Clocks. This brass Mercury model of the clock also came in other finishes, like bronze.
A self-made businessman, Anson Phelps of Connecticut, established the Ansonia Brass Company in 1844. Over the course of several years and through several different partners, the company operated in southeastern Connecticut’s Naugatuck River Valley on the east bank of the river, nine miles from New Haven, and produced rolled brass for industrial uses. The area was originally called Derby. The city of Ansonia was incorporated north of present Derby in 1889 in honor of Anson Phelps.
In 1850, as a subsidiary of the Ansonia Brass Company, Phelps and two Connecticut clockmakers developed the Ansonia Clock Company. On July 8, 1854, the New York Daily Times reported “The large stone factory of the Ansonia Clock Company was wholly destroyed by fire early this morning. The loss exceeds one hundred thousand dollars. Insured for about fifty thousand.” Following the fire, the company underwent several small name changes and prioritized brass and battery production under new partners. By 1877, the Ansonia Clock Company was back in full swing, operating in New York. Clockmaker Henry J. Davies of Brooklyn joined the reconstituted company as one of its founders. As President of the firm, he was largely responsible for the company’s well-known figurine clocks, swing clocks and other unusual novelties, which are widely desired and collected today.
According to the website devoted to collecting Ansonia clock models, the company lost their prominent foothold in clock sales in the WWI years, and had accrued massive amounts of debt. By 1920, the number of clock models offered in their catalogs had already dropped from over 400 to 136. Their popular black iron mantel clocks, china cased clocks, and statue clocks were all discontinued. On the eve of the 1929 stock market crash, a newspaper article from the Wisconsin Appleton Post noted that Russia had just bought the clock factory from the Ansonia Clock Company of Brooklyn which would be moved to Russia to manufacture a million alarm clocks and half a million wall clocks a year. Former Ansonia employees moved to Moscow for up to 18 months to assist with setting up equipment and help train Russian workers.
For more about Ansonia clocks, please visit: http://www.antiqueansoniaclocks.com/ansonia-clock-history.php
