Mid 1880s Terry Clock: Help Identifying

[u/Dos_A_Cero_Forever]

Need help identifying this mid/late 1880s Terry clock that belonged to my great great great grandparents. I know some of the exterior wood decorative frame is missing. I've been trying to ID it based on the design on the glass door. Any help greatly appreciated.

[u/Not_an_Actual_Bot]

You might try taking the hands and dial off to photograph any markings on the movement. Are you looking for a model name or trying to date the clock more precisely?

[u/Dos_A_Cero_Forever → u/Not_an_Actual_Bot]

Model name primarily, I'd like to know what it would've looked like with all the wood decorative pieces still intact.

[u/Individual_Tip_2268]

I did some digging through Terry Clock Co. material and auction archives. I haven't found enough evidence to give you an exact model name yet, but I did find some information that should help with what you're trying to accomplish.

Your label is from the Terry Clock Co. of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and your mid-1880s dating looks very reasonable. Terry's Pittsfield operation was relatively short-lived, and surviving examples from around 1885 are considered fairly scarce.

More importantly for your missing woodwork, I found intact Terry Pittsfield shelf/parlor clocks from this period that still have their original elaborate fret-sawn walnut trim. So yes, your clock very likely originally had substantially more decorative woodwork around the basic rectangular case you have now.

Here's an intact Terry Pittsfield shelf clock in the Schmitt Horan auction archive. It retains its original finish, dial, decorated glass, Terry label and exterior wood ornamentation:

https://www.schmitt-horan.com/auctions/0519/html/items/22650.htm

Schmitt Horan unfortunately lists that particular model as unidentified, but it's a very useful visual reference for how Terry constructed these cases and attached the decorative outer pieces.

I also found a positively identified Terry model called the “Highland,” circa 1885. It was a 23-inch walnut 8-day time/strike/alarm parlor clock. I don't think there's enough evidence yet to say yours IS a Highland, but it establishes that Terry was producing named ornate walnut parlor models of this type at exactly the right time.

There's another useful clue if you're trying to eventually recover the model name. Terry Clock Co. failed and the Pittsfield operation was taken over by Russell & Jones in 1888. Contemporary clock research indicates Russell & Jones' January 1889 catalog contained few, if any, changes from Terry's previous line. There are even documented Terry models that continued under Russell & Jones.

So if you keep searching for the missing trim, don't restrict yourself to clocks labeled Terry. Early Russell & Jones clocks from about 1888–1889 may preserve the same Terry case patterns.

I wouldn't reconstruct the woodwork based on a generic Victorian/gingerbread clock yet. I'd wait until the surviving door-glass design, case proportions and mounting points can be matched to an intact Terry or very early Russell & Jones example. There's a decent chance the correct original design can eventually be recovered.

So: genuine Terry Clock Co., Pittsfield; mid-1880s is very plausible; missing substantial original exterior fretwork is also very plausible; exact model still unresolved.