Clock makers · United States

Ansonia Clock Company

Born in a Connecticut brass town and grown into a block-sized Brooklyn factory, Ansonia filled homes around the world with clocks before its machinery was shipped to Moscow.

By David Ray · clocks.fyi

A clock company built on brass

The Ansonia Clock Company grew out of the copper and brass business of Anson Green Phelps, a merchant born in Simsbury, Connecticut, in 1781. In 1844 Phelps bought land on the east side of the Naugatuck River in Derby for a manufacturing site, and the settlement that grew there took his name: Ansonia.

The clock company itself was set up as an offshoot of Phelps's metal firm, Phelps, Dodge & Co., which could supply it with brass. Brooklyn's Brownstoner architecture column dates the start to 1850 and names clockmakers Theodore Terry and Franklin C. Andrews as Phelps's partners, while the Journal of Antiques and Collectibles gives 1851. Either way, the factory burned in 1854 and had to be rebuilt.

The move to Brooklyn

In the late 1870s Ansonia shifted its center of gravity to New York. Accounts differ on the exact sequence: the Journal of Antiques says the business moved to Brooklyn in 1877, while Brownstoner says a second factory was built there in 1879. The Brooklyn plant burned about a year after opening, reportedly because of a gas leak, and was rebuilt in 1880 and 1881.

The new complex filled an entire block in Park Slope, between 7th and 8th Avenues and 12th and 13th Streets, arranged around a central courtyard. The Brooklyn Eagle called it the largest clock factory in the world. The Connecticut factory closed in 1883 and the head office moved to New York City, with branches in Chicago and London.

Brooklyn Public Library notes that at its height the company exported clocks as far as Japan and ran retail shops in London, Chicago and New York.

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What Ansonia made

Ansonia's catalog was enormous. Brownstoner reports 225 models in production in 1886 and more than 440 at the company's 1914 peak; the Journal of Antiques puts the 1914 figure at about 450 designs. The same journal says Ansonia also sold millions of inexpensive watches without jewels before it closed its watch division.

Museum collections show the variety. The Brooklyn Museum holds a painted cast-metal mantel clock from about 1880 whose back label calls the model Cairo and describes it as an eight-day strike. The Henry Ford holds a brass statue shelf clock made in Brooklyn between 1880 and 1900. The Journal of Antiques also mentions an Office Regulator wall clock made in the early 1900s, including a version advertising Coca-Cola.

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Identifying and dating an Ansonia clock

Start with the back and the movement. The Cairo clock's paper label, recorded by the Brooklyn Museum, shows a trademark of a square with an A in the middle, warns that the clock is not genuine without that mark, and names the Ansonia Clock Company of New York, U.S.A. as sole manufacturers. It also mentions a prize medal from a Paris exposition in the 1870s.

The Henry Ford's statue clock is stamped ANSONIA CLOCK CO / NEW YORK / USA on its rear plate and carries a similar line along its lower edge. Because the company moved its manufacturing and offices from Connecticut to New York between the late 1870s and 1883, a New York address points to the Brooklyn years, while an Ansonia, Connecticut address belongs to the earlier period.

Model names on labels, like Cairo, can be matched against reprinted Ansonia catalogs to narrow the date further. If there is no label at all, a clock repairer can often recognize Ansonia movements, but treat any unmarked attribution with caution.

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What became of Ansonia

Competition, the aftershocks of World War I and the start of the Depression wore the business down. In 1929 Ansonia was sold to a Russian trading company, according to Brownstoner, and employees were sent to Moscow for about 18 months to teach assembly-line clockmaking. That sale marked the end of the American company.

The Brooklyn factory survived. After use by other manufacturers, including Globe Lighting Products, it was converted to apartments in 1982 and is now a co-op called Ansonia Court. It lies within the Park Slope Historic District Extension, which New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission approved in April 2012.

Questions people ask

How do I tell how old my Ansonia clock is?

Look for the maker's address on the label, dial or movement. Ansonia, Connecticut marks belong to the early decades, while New York or Brooklyn marks date from the late 1870s onward, after the company moved. A model name on the label can then be checked against reprinted Ansonia catalogs.

Is the Ansonia Clock Company still in business?

No. The original company was sold to a Russian trading company in 1929, and its clockmaking moved to Moscow. The Brooklyn factory building still stands as an apartment co-op.

What does the A in a square mean on an Ansonia label?

It is the company's trademark. A Brooklyn Museum label from about 1880 shows a square with an A in the center and warns that the clock is not genuine without it.

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