Harmon Estate Clocks, Part 2

According to the 1962 article about my grandfather, he had a collection of about 150 clocks. Based on what I've found so far, I think they're all here. I'm still working on getting them unpacked, along with my grandmother's kitchen and gardening supplies, my grandfather's crates full of miscellaneous hardware supplies, and various boxes of books and records.

Here's a few more of the clocks unpacked so far.


Shepard, Le Boutillier & Co.

Clock retailed by Shepard, Le Boutillier & Co., New York, 1870s or '80s. The company imported French and English clocks beginning in 1872. The name was changed to Le Boutillier & Co. in 1893.

Detail of the retailer's name on the dial.

Black, Starr & Frost

Chiming clock retailed by New York jeweler Black, Starr & Frost.

Detail of the dial, showing what is left of the retailer's name.

Ithaca Calendar Clocks

Ithaca Calendar Clock Company, telling the time on
the upper dial and the date on the lower dial.

This particular example of an Ithaca Calendar Clock, as noted on the calendar dial, features Henry Bishop Horton's patents of 1865 and 1866. Horton initially tried to sell his patent to the Seth Thomas clock company in Plymouth Hollow (now Thomaston, CT), but they already owned calendar clock patents and were not interested. Horton next tried the Waterbury Clock Company, but they could not agree on a deal that satisfied him. Horton gave up on trying to sell his patent and instead started up his own clock company, partnering with three others to form the Ithaca Calendar Clock Company.

Horton was a multi-talented inventor: he designed and manufactured a melodeon which he called the Melo-Pean in Akron, Ohio, and he formed an autophone organette company in Ithaca. Born in Winchester, CT in 1819, Horton and his family moved to Covert, NY when he was four. He apprenticed with a cabinetmaker before developing a specialty in melodeons. Horton died in 1885; his company continued on for nearly thirty years more.

A second Ithaca Calendar Clock, without Horton's name on the dial.

Detail of the calendar dial.