Saturday, May 17, 2014

Sunburst Clock

I have a habit of rotating things out of my collection when I find the next version of the object.  For example, coffee pots come and go as do toasters.  

A while back I found this mid century sunburst clock at an estate sale. It was pretty dirty and I made my best effort to restore it.

Last week, I came across another mid century starburst clock.  This one was labeled $5 "as is".





I'm not sure what was stuck on the face leaving the green fuzzy felt residue behind, but obviously that was the reason it was marked "as is".


I took the face off and let it soak in hot, soapy water.  While it was off, I discovered the rather yellowed looking brass spires were actually covered with the original plastic protective coating.


I peeled them off revealing brilliant, shiny spires underneath.

After soaking for about 15 minutes, and with a little light scrubbing, the green felt peeled off leaving behind the original painted black surface.  There was some damage to the paint, but not bad.  I may touch it up eventually.


The clock work is battery-powered electric.  I'm not sure if it's original to the clock, but given there's no key hole on the face, at most it was corded electric.   **Update**.  It just struck me looking through these pictures that the brown under-face in the pictures above actually has a secondary hole below the center hole.  It's possible this is a replacement face and the original face would have had a matching keyhole.  That would explain why there's no manufacturer's name on the face of the clock.


I think it turned out pretty nice.


4 comments:

  1. Very nice! How weird that all the years it was owned by someone else, it was still covered with the plastic covering!

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    1. Agreed, Joe. It's possible they never knew the covering was there. I didn't notice it until I pulled the face and saw the pull tabs on the plastic.

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  2. i agree with Caffeinated Joe -- it's like the starburst clock equivalent of plastic couch covers, i guess.

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    1. Ha! That was my exact thought too! Or the modern equivalent of leaving the plastic film that comes on various electronics.

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