Grandfather Clock

Hello Sharon Ginger,
Thank you for sending in your mom’s Hall clock to mearto.com for an appraisal. I shall do my best to help you with that today.
TITLE:
Stained oak, three weight, eight day time, strike and quarterly chiming (choice of three melodies) Hall clock (aka- the modern grandfather clock), made by the Franz Hermle Clock Factory, Gosheim, in the Black Forest region, Germany, circa 1990s.
DESCRIPTION:
Case: Size not provided and is estimated to be between 78” and 86” in height. This is a contemporary style stained golden oak Hall clock case with the hood having a broken arch pediment centering a wooden plinth for a finial with a tapered fluted keystone below. The tympanum below the pediment has an arched cornice above the arched glazed dial door. The door however runs almost the full length of the case. The smaller upper glazed hood section has a glass overlying the dial while below the longer glass allows viewing the descent of the three polished brass canister weights and the arc of the gridiron pendulum as it swings. The door is flanked by fluted vertical flat pilasters with foliate carved capital and base. There are rectangular side-lights in the hood with open wooden fretwork to allow the chime to be more easily heard in the room. The door has an elongated floral Dore bronze ornamental key escutcheon. Below the level of the door is a multi-stepped double convex moulded base which sits flat to the floor.
Dial: An arched brass alloy dial plate with a silvered Arabic hour chapter ring. Each brass Arabic hour sits in a circular cartouche. There are foliate half hour markers and a closed bar minute track to the outside, silvered applied Chieftain spandrels while the dial center has a faux gilt filigree design with machined Chippendale style steel hands. In the lunette there is a revolving moon dial with a Lunar month (29 1/2 days) above and two stylized hemispheres below. The dial is unsigned.
Movement: This appears to be a Franz Hermle 1151-050H model movement. It is made of solid brass stippled plates and signed on the rear plate by Franz Hermle with the movement model number. There are four tubular pillars at the corners of the front and rear plates which are secured together with screws and nuts. There is an anchor escapement with a rack and snail aided striking system. The three weights power the movement for eight days and cause striking on the hour by using a series of hammers striking metal rods of varying length. The chiming is quarterly also using some of the hammers and rods. The movement comes with eight hammers on one side of the movement and four on the opposite side. I believe that the chiming is arranged so that you have a choice of three melodies, “Westminster, St. Michaels and Whittington” chimes, all controlled from a lever alongside the three on the dial. There is a long pendulum with a gridiron shaft for temperature compensation (made up of alternating steel and brass rods) and the large brass covered bob below has a polished lyre shaped ornament above the bob.
CONDITION:
Case – In excellent condition with no major damage.
Dial – Excellent with no damage
Movement – Not seen but assumed to be original to this case, genuine and likely functional.
HISTORY:
The Hermle clock factory was at Gosheim in the Black Forest region of Germany and was founded by Franz in 1922 as a supplier and subcontractor for the Kienzle clock company of Schwenningen. Franz died in 1935, but had been joined by his son Gebhard in 1929. The factory was demolished during WWll but by 1951 Gebhard and a loyal staff had it up and running once again. He died in 1976, but the firm was then run by Hans and Heinrich Hermle, with 450 employees, and still one of the major suppliers of movements to the world up to today. By the end of the 20th century they supplied both their fine movements as well as entire clocks to the majority of countries in the world. A very successful operation and family run for a century.
COMPARABLES:
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/80173928_hermle-black-forest-tall-case-clock-451-050h (SOLD FOR $80 IN 2020)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/66571754_hermle-black-forest-grandfather-clock-west-germany (Sold for $375 in 2018)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/90053222_je-caldwell-weight-driven-oak-hall-clock (German origin and sold for $275 in 2020)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/90053226_mahogany-3-weight-wire-chiming-hall-clock (German origin and sold for $50 in 2020)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/74800609_german-three-weight-clock-herschede-71-h (sold for 4100 in 2019)
PRICING:
These Hall clocks were extremely popular throughout the 20th century, but went through a rebirth starting at the end of the 1970s and continuing into the early years of the 21st century. With people now looking for smaller apartments and smaller houses (mostly), the popularity of the form has waned. In addition, the production, at its height in the last two decades of the last century, were being turned out by the tens, if not hundreds of thousands across the globe. In today’s market place your mom’s clock, which probably cost $2000-$2500 retail when she purchased it has now fallen to a fair market value in the range of $200-$250 on a good day, with retail values about twice that amount on the secondary market. Strangely enough, if you went out looking for a new example on the primarily retail market you will still pay $3000 +/- for such a clock.
At any rate, I hope this fully explains the clock to you and I thank you for capturing the backplate of the movement for me.
Thank you for choosing mearto.com for your appraisal.
My best,
David