Anson G. Phelps, a wealthy Connecticut importer of tin, brass, and copper, founded the Ansonia Clock Company in 1850. This was six years after he had built a copper rolling mill near derby, Connecticut, at a place he called Ansonia.
Phelps started the business with a capital of $100,000. His associates in this enterprise were Eli Terry and Franklin C. Andrews. The firm was advertised in the Connecticut Business directory with the following declaration: "Ansonia clock Company, Manufacturers and Dealers in Clocks and Timepieces of every desciption, wholesale and retail, Ansonia, Connecticut."
After a fire destroyed the factory in 1854, Phelps'' company moved to Ansonia where it was renamed the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company. At this location, the company made clocks from 1864 to 1878. The Ansonia Clock Company was again organized in 1878 after moving its clock making operations to Brooklyn, New york. Shortly after this move, in the late 1880s, a fire destroyed the factory. A year later, after the completion of the new factory in Brooklyn, their business expanded. Many new styles of clocks were made and novelty and figurine clocks became a big part of their clock making enterprise.
All sorts of wall and shelf clocks, including swing clocks, were introduced. Imitation French Clocks, as well as novelties, such as the "Bobbing Doll" and "Swinging Doll," patented in 1855 and 1859 respectively, were marketed. An 1889 catalog showing Ansonia clocks featured three versions of the Bobbers, called Jumper No. 1, Jumper No.2 and Jumper No.3. Ansonia was known for its diversity of clock types; many of the older and unusual ones have been reproduced, including the previously mentioned "Bobbing" and "swinging" dolls.
The company''s specialty clocks included the Swing clocks, in which female figures held the swinging pendulums. Also popular were the Royal Bonn porcelain shelf varieties and the statue clocks, which the company advertised as figure clocks. Among its novelty clocks, the Crystal Palace, Sonnet, Helmsmen, and Army and Navy have proved to be excellent collector''s items and have rapidly increased in value. The clocks were marked "New York" as their place of orgin.
Just prior to Worl War 1, Ansonia has sales representatives in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, and India, as well as a score of other countries. After the conclusion of this war, its business deteriorated in quality and dropped measurably in the number of clocks produced. Manufactoring stopped in the spring of 1929. By the end of that year, the company''s material assets were sold to the Russian government. sad as it was to accept, this great clock manufacturing company, creative as any other American clock company, was defunct after the Summer of 1929.
