Ansonia Clock Company
| Industry | Clock manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | Ansonia, Connecticut (1851 |
| Defunct | 2006 |
| Products | Clocks |
| Website |
ansonia |
Ansonia Clocks were made by a clock manufacturing business which started in Ansonia, Connecticut, in 1851 and which moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1878. An enormously successful business, it turned out thousands of clocks in a large number of styles.
In 1838, brass movements had mainly replaced wooden and cast iron movements in most clocks due to the volumes of supply of rolled brass. In 1844, metal dealer Anson Greene Phelps formed the Ansonia Brass company in Connecticut, to supply the expanding clock business - nine companies were producing clocks in Connecticut.
In 1850 the Ansonia Clock Company was formed as a subsidiary of the Ansonia Brass Company by Phelps and two Bristol, Connecticut, clockmakers, Theodore Terry and Franklin C. Andrews. Terry & Andrews were the largest clock manufacturers in Bristol, with more than 50 employees using 58 tons of brass in the production of about 25,000 clocks in 1849. Phelps decided to get into the clockmaking business to expand the market for his brass, while Terry and Andrews got access to better quality brass at better prices. They had resultantly sold 50% of their business to Phelps, and moved the business to Ansonia.
In 1877 the clock company purchased a factory in New York, and moved most of its production there after being spun off from the brass company. Henry J. Davies of Brooklyn, himself a clockmaker, inventor and case designer, joins the newly reconstituted company as one of its founders. As President, he is thought to be largely responsible for the figurine clocks, swing clocks and other unusual and desirable novelties for which the Ansonia firm became known.
Thomas Edison visited the factory in 1878 to experiment combining clocks with his newly developed phonograph. But the experiments proved unviable.
By 1879, a second factory is opened in Brooklyn, New York and by June 1880 employs 360 workers, while the Connecticut factory continues producing clocks as well with a work force of 100 men and 25 women. Hence, clocks marked "Connecticut" were generally produced before 1879, while those marked "New York" were all produced after 1880
After the New York factory burnt down in 1880 - the loss is reported to be $750,000 with only $395,000 insured. (See New York Times October 28, 1880; http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9905E4DE173FE533A2575BC2A9669D94619FD7CF ). The company rebuilt the factory on the same site, and reopened the expanded factory in 1881, with capacity to exceed that of the Connecticut factory - which closed completely in 1883. By 1886, the company has sales offices in New York, Chicago and London, and more than 225 different clock models are being manufactured. The prosperous and debt free Ansonia Clock Company reports having an inventory worth $600,000 and receivables valued at $250,000. In 1904, Ansonia added non-jeweled watches to their line, and produces an estimated 10 million of these by 1929
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Wikipedia