The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Clocks

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

With 330 photos illustrating the products of more than 100 clockmakers,
this is the most comprehensive work available on Canadian clocks from
the 19th century. The work lists all known clockmakers operating in
Canada before 1900, an era when Canada consisted of Ontario, Quebec, and
the Maritime provinces. The guide covers case (“grandfather”)
clocks, wall clocks, and mantel clocks. For each manufacturer, there’s
a brief note giving location, dates of manufacture, unique
characteristics of the business and its products or processes, and other
interesting details. For each model of clock, the details include type,
movement, dial, striking frequency and type, height, width, materials
used, rarity rating, and an average value in relation to condition.

Collectors always want to know what their treasures are worth, and most
authors are reluctant to give even an estimate. This is understandable,
as so many factors, such as condition and demand, affect the selling
price. This guide should be popular in that it ventures an estimate on
value, but not before spelling out the pitfalls of such an exercise.
Connell’s rarity and condition rating system is of interest:
“fair,” “good,” and “mint” have specific, objective
meanings, as do “extremely rare,” “rare,” and “common.”

The guide is clear, clean, and extremely easy to use. The clocks are
listed alphabetically by manufacturer, and the data on each are
presented in a table format that is consistent and uncomplicated. The
black-and-white photos could be better, but are clear enough for
identification purposes. The book will be valuable to every collector of
Canadiana and useful in every public library.