Time Flies

How do you know what time it is? I would bet that if I asked you what time it was right now that most of you would pull out your cell phones, some would look at your watches, and some would look for a clock on the wall, mantel, desk, or even computer. Before our cell phones, computers, and digital clocks there were analog clocks, or clocks using angles to tell the time. These clocks use a face with numbers or markers and usually have some kind of hands pointing to the specific time. Not only functional, clocks can also be beautiful. A good example of this is the clock from the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection here at the Western Heritage Museum Complex and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame.

The clock in our collection has a plaque reading: “Thomas and Mary Linam C. 1860” and a label reading “Ansonia Clock Co. U.S.”. The Ansonia Clock Co. began in Connecticut in 1950 as a subsidiary of the Ansonia Brass Company. This made sense because, according to www.antiqueansoniaclocks.com, by 1838 inexpensive clock movements made of rolled brass had replaced wooden and cast brass movements. This was a way for founder of both companies Anson Green Phelps to expand his market for brass productions. The Ansonia Clock Co. developed clocks best known for their decorative imitation gold and ornate novelties such as cupids and angels, athletes, and babies (www.ansonia.com). The Ansonia Clock Co. flourished despite fires and even opened a new factor in New York in 1879 which also burned down in 1880 but was rebuilt in 1881. In 1929, a few months before the stock market crash, Ansonia Clock Co. went into receivership and sold its machinery and dies to Amtorg, an American trading organization acting as the principal importing and exporting agent for Soviet Russia according to www.antiqueansoiaclocks.com. The name Ansonia Clock Co. was brought back in 1969 in Washington but has no affiliation to the original plant.

This clock from the Virgil and Thelma Linam Webber Collection is beautiful and reminds me of a clock we had when I was little. The clock in my childhood, like the Museum’s clock, used a key to wind the gears and I used to love to have that task as a child. Clocks are so fantastic because they are not only utilitarian but they are aesthetic pieces as well. To see this wonderful piece of history come visit the South Gallery of the Western Heritage Museum Complex and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame.