How to Buy or Sell — Clocks and Watches

According to some collectors, a home without a ticking clock has no heart. Clocks that work always sell well. It does not seem to matter if they are old, new, Art Deco, or an eighteenth-century carriage clock. One problem with pricing clocks is that two clocks that look the same to a novice may look very different to an expert. Years ago, we ran a picture of a clock sent by a newspaper column reader. It was an 1880 wall clock with elaborate “gingerbread” trim. We gave a suggested value. We soon heard from many readers questioning the price. We got another, better picture of the clock, and examined the trim very carefully. We saw what our clock-expert readers had noticed. This was a rare version of the wall clock, with fancy trim, worth thousands of dollars, not just the few hundred dollars we had suggested.