{"product_id":"elgin-gilt-picture-frame-wind-up-alarm-clock-rococo-corners-beaded-oval-bezel-c-1960-1975","title":"Elgin Gilt Picture Frame Wind Up Alarm Clock, Rococo Corners, Beaded Oval Bezel, c. 1960–1975","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn Elgin wind-up alarm clock set into a gilt picture frame, the boudoir and dressing-table clock of the mid-century bedroom. The case is a rectangular easel frame in gilt-finished metal, the broad flat border stippled to a soft matte gold and raised at each corner with a cast rococo scroll of acanthus and shell, the inner oval bezel beaded like a string of pearls around a clean white dial. The dial carries bold black Arabic numerals, a slender spade-tipped hour and minute hand, a fine sweep seconds hand, a small alarm pointer and the Elgin name above the word Alarm; a glass crystal covers it. The back is as honest as the front: a round gold-lacquered movement drum with the winding and setting keys labeled Time and Alarm and the start lever marked beside them, and a folding black steel strut that props the frame on a nightstand at the angle a photograph would sit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe clock is complete and presents well. The gilt is even with only light rubbing at the frame edges, the corner scrolls sharp, the beaded bezel and glass intact, the dial clean and unspotted, and the strut folds and holds. The movement winds and the alarm sets; it has not been serviced and is sold as a decorative piece that runs, with the usual caveat that a sixty-year-old wind-up clock keeps time by its own lights until a clockmaker cleans it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElgin was the great American watch name. The Elgin National Watch Company began making watches in Elgin, Illinois, in 1867, built the largest watch factory in the world there, and by the middle of the twentieth century had made half the pocket and wrist watches in American drawers. The company moved its production south in 1963, closed the Illinois factory in 1964 and ended American manufacturing altogether in 1968, and in its final years and after, the Elgin name was carried by clocks and watches made to its order abroad, the wind-up alarm and travel clocks coming from the clockmaking districts of West Germany and from Japan and sold through jewelers, department stores and catalog houses that still trusted the name. The picture-frame alarm clock was one of the staples of that trade: a mechanical alarm movement housed in a gilt or brass easel frame styled after the rococo dressing-table frames of the French boudoir, bought for a bedroom, a vanity or a guest room where a twin-bell clock would have looked like a kitchen.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe clock is attributed on its dial to Elgin and is offered as an Elgin-branded import of the company's last period. The dating rests on the construction rather than style alone: the mechanical wind-up alarm movement with sweep seconds, the stippled gilt-finish metal frame with cast corner ornaments and the folding steel strut are consistent with the Elgin alarm clocks sold between about 1960 and 1975.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eType\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAlarm clock, wind-up, easel picture-frame case\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eElgin, branded; import movement\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDate\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1960–1975\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGilt-finished metal frame with cast rococo corner scrolls, beaded oval bezel, glass crystal, steel easel strut\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMovement\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMechanical, key wound, alarm with separate setting key and start lever, sweep seconds\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWhite with black Arabic numerals, marked Elgin Alarm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition Guaranteed. Complete and winding; gilt even with light edge rubbing; dial and glass clean; strut sound; movement unserviced\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMeasurements on request\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind – 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the clock for a nightstand, a vanity or a guest room, where it reads as a small gilt picture until the alarm goes off. The matte gold and the rococo corners keep company with brass lamps, old mirror glass, marble tops and painted furniture, and with the gilt frames of a gallery wall; it is as happy in a traditional bedroom as on a collected modern dresser or a bar cart, where it is the one object that tells the time. It makes a gift for a bride, a traveler, a mother or anyone who would rather wake to a bell than a telephone. For a shop or designer client it is the small, bright, working accent that finishes a nightstand vignette and sells on the Elgin name.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":68055523754089,"sku":"VE-1891","price":150.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/01_1dcc79f1-f34f-4000-8bfa-803edee1e705.jpg?v=1794560447","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/elgin-gilt-picture-frame-wind-up-alarm-clock-rococo-corners-beaded-oval-bezel-c-1960-1975","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}