Historical information
Chauncey Jerome (1793–1868) was an American clock maker in the early to mid 19th century. He made a fortune selling his clocks, and his business grew quickly. Jerome was born in Canaan USA in 1793 son of a blacksmith and nail-maker. He began his career in Plymouth, making dials for long-case clocks where he learned all he could about clocks, particularly clock cases, and then went to New Jersey to make seven-foot cases for clocks mechanisms.
In 1816 he went to work for Eli Terry making "Patent Shelf Clocks," learning how to make previously handmade cases using machinery. Deciding to go into business for himself, Jerome began to make cases, trading them to Terry for wooden movements. In 1822 Jerome moved his business to Bristol New Haven, opening a small shop with his brother Noble and began to produce a 30-hour and eight-day wooden clocks. By 1837 Jerome's company was selling more clocks than any of his competitors. A one-day wood-cased clock, which sold for six dollars had helped put the company on the map. A year later his company was selling that same clock for four dollars. The company also sold one line of clocks at a wholesale price of 75 cents and by 1841 the company was showing an annual profit of a whopping $35,000, primarily from the sale of its brass movements.
In 1842 Jerome moved his clock-case manufacturing operation to St. John Street in New Haven. Three years later, following a fire that destroyed the Bristol plant, Jerome relocated the entire operation to Elm City factory. Enlarging the plant, the company soon became the largest industrial employer in the city, producing 150,000 clocks annually. In 1850 Jerome formed the Jerome Manufacturing Co. as a joint-stock company with Benedict & Burnham, brass manufacturers of Waterbury. In 1853 the company then became known as the New Haven Clock Co, producing 444,000 clocks and timepieces annually, then the largest clock maker in the world.
Jerome's future should have been secure but in 1855 he bought out a failed Bridgeport clock company controlled by P.T. Barnum, which wiped him out financially, leaving the Jerome Manufacturing Co. bankrupt. Jerome never recovered from the loss. By his admission, he was a better inventor than a businessman. When Jerome went bankrupt in 1856 the New Haven Clock Company purchased the company. One of the primary benefits of Jerome purchasing New Haven in the first place was the good reputation of the Jerome brand and the network of companies that remained interested in selling its clocks. In England, Jerome & Co. Ltd. sold Jerome clocks for the New Haven company until 1904, when New Haven purchased the English firm outright.
After his involvement with the New Haven Company in 1856, Jerome traveled from town to town, taking jobs where he could, often working for clock companies that had learned the business of clock making using Jerome's inventions. On returning to New Haven near the end of his life, he died, penniless, in 1868 at the age of 74.
The company struggled on after Jerome's bankruptcy until after World War II, when the company endeavored to continue through disruptions caused by a takeover along with poor sales, finally having to fold its operations in 1960 a little more than 100 years after it had been founded.
Significance
The item is significant as it is associated with Chauncey Jerome who had made a historic contribution to the clock making industry during the 19th century when he began to substitute brass mechanisms for wooden mechanisms in his clocks. This was said to be the greatest and most far-reaching contribution to the clock industry. Because of his discovery of stamping out clockwork gears rather than using castings, Jerome was producing the lowest-priced clocks in the world. That can only add to his significance as the major clock manufacture of the 19th century. Jerome may have made and lost, a fortune selling his clocks but was perhaps the most influential and creative person associated with the American clock business during the mid-19th century. Also, he had served his community as a legislator in 1834, a Presidential elector in 1852 and mayor of New Haven, Connecticut from 1854 to 1855.
Physical description
Clock, marine, in octagonal rosewood veneer case. Roman numerals to dial, has a seconds dial. 2 key-winding holes slow-to-Fast adjustment pin through dial. Small lever in lower edge of case activates a chime. "8 day, 8 inch, Lever Striking escarpment "
Inscriptions & markings
Paper label on the back of the clock "Jerome & Co, New Haven, Conn" "Manufacturers of every variety of Office and Home Clocks and Time Pieces".
