{"id":313,"date":"2013-04-03T21:17:54","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T04:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/?p=313"},"modified":"2013-04-06T23:28:52","modified_gmt":"2013-04-07T06:28:52","slug":"find-of-the-week-1890s-wurttemberg-uhrenfabrik-clock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/2013\/04\/03\/find-of-the-week-1890s-wurttemberg-uhrenfabrik-clock\/","title":{"rendered":"Find of the Week – 1890s W\u00fcrttemberg Uhrenfabrik clock"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m always thrilled to find truly old things at thrift stores. This clock was instantly recognizable as being a true antique when I found it on a shelf with a motley assortment of quartz wall clocks and electric clock-radios at the Goodwill on SE Grand. It was priced at $8, ‘as is’. I greedily snatched it up and took it home, feeling like a thief after I checked out and paid the token price.<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_21-57-05_335\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n \n\t\t
\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_21-58-01_129\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n \n\t\t
\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_21-57-48_107\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

The only writing on the case is a fragment of a label on the back, with some handwriting in pencil. It looks like…<\/p>\n

Ba(l|b)(y|g|s)
\nShar(p|f)(unk.)(u w\/ umlaut|i)(d|2)
\nJune 22, 189(7|9)
\nE?&(l|b)(unk.)<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_21-58-14_153\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n \n\t\t
\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_22-10-53_595\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

On first glance I was worried the movement was incomplete because of all of the vacant screw holes. I think the frame is actually provisioned for a few different variations of the mechanism though, maybe some kind of date display thing because of the ‘window’ in the front plate?<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_22-10-47_469\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n \n\t\t
\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_22-11-44_813\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

The movement has a few makers markings. ‘W\u00fcrttemberg Uhrenfabrik’ and a stylized ‘WUS’ logo with the text ‘B\u00fcrk’ beneath. Based on similar logos found in Mikrolisk’s [1] database I think this movement was made by W\u00fcrttembergische Uhrenfabrik B\u00fcrk S\u00f6hne [2]. <\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_22-20-47_697\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

Output shaft and the geartrain for setting the clock.<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_22-20-58_258\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

Backside of the dust cover. Hand formed and soldered modification to make the ‘sealed’ area smaller.<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_22-21-11_718\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

Also interesting is a bit of text visible on the piece used in modifying the dust cover. <\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_22-37-49_299\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

The hands are two pieces soldered together as well.<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_22-35-40_737\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

Another dust cover strip on the side removed reveals the rest of the movement.<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_22-29-55_683\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n \n\t\t
\n\t\t\t \t\n \"2013-04-01_22-36-15_78\"\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

The spring was wound absurdly tightly already, I gave it a bit of a crank not knowing this and am probably lucky I didn’t break it. I gave the balance wheel a bit of a shove and it actually started right up… It’s been running for two days now. Kinda want it to stop so I can leave it be and avoid putting any more wear on the parts. <\/p>\n

I have a feeling the case is not original, though it’s clearly quite old. Not sure how I’d go about further tracing that aspect of it. <\/p>\n

[1]: http:\/\/www.mikrolisk.de\/show.php?site=280&suchwort=W%C3%BCrttembergische&searchWhere=all#sucheMarker<\/p>\n

[2]: http:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/W%C3%BCrttembergische_Uhrenfabrik_B%C3%BCrk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m always thrilled to find truly old things at thrift stores. This clock was instantly recognizable as being a true antique when I found it on a shelf with a motley assortment of quartz wall clocks and electric clock-radios at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[9,36],"tags":[203,95,125,204,38,23,149],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/raster-burn.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}