Our
January 11th meeting was held as usual at the Boys & Girls Club. The
Club held a fund raiser crab feed the night before requiring a number of
Chapter members to show up early Sunday morning to help clean-up the
gym, stack chairs,
and rearrange the tables for our MART. Such a landloard. We had a good
MART
with more than our normal 65 tables.
The program started after
a short business meeting and the reporting of the passing of Frank
Vonderwerth, a former Chapter President and Treasurer.
Our program for Sunday was presented by Ron Bechler, a
long time collector, dealer and repairman of Chelsea Clocks. He
presented a condensed history
of the Chelsea Clock Company from inception to the present day. It began
with the
sober story of James Eastman, founder of the Boston Clock Co. and a host
of other failed ventures. It
traced the ownership of the Chelsea Co. through the various
changes of owners and finished with a description of the present day
operations.
The display showed clocks from Eastman, a Vermont
Crystal Regulator and a
Vermont Carriage clock in nickel. Two Boston Tandem Wind clocks were
shown,
one Crystal Regulator and one Chiming Carriage
clock, somewhat rare. Also on
display were
Chelsea
products, from the very early production, a Series B Marine
clock, a Marine clock made for the US Lighthouse Service, as well as
several clocks from the current production (new) line including the
Boston and a Special Grand model along with a matching 8 inch Barometer.
Also on display was a diorama of Chelsea ephemera,
made up of color photos
recently taken in the factory, many historical photos of events of
company history,
past US Presidents with their Chelsea Clocks and a series of foreign
dignitaries
also with their prized
Chelsea
Clocks. Included in the diorama were many Chelsea
advertisements from national magazines dating back to the early days of
Chelsea Clocks.
The Chapter thanks Ron for his presentation and his
efforts to transport and setup
his display. Little thought is given to the effort of setting up and
taking down a
presentation display.
John Stohr NAWCC #79281
