Grandma's clock

This is the ubiquitous Napoleon hat clock that would have been found on the mantlepiece of most households 80 years ago.  It is plain and ordinary but with a very well made mechanism that has given very good service and continues to do so. This one has an English case with a German movement made by the Mauthe clock company. In 1844 Friedrich Mauthe and his wife Marie (Kienzle) founded a company in Schwenningen, Germany to produce watch parts.  By the end of the 1860s Mauthe began to produce their own wall clocks and movements.  Some were produced through the network of cottage clock industries or so called "Gewerblern", others were produced in a mass production industrialized way.  In 1930 2000 workers produced 45,000 clocks and watches a week. By 1923, 60% German clocks exported to London were Mauthe.  In 1970, Mauthe struggled for survival, and in 1975 the company was in receivership and forced to close in 1976. 
This clock has the Westminster chimes that many people associate with old clocks and love, very pleasant sounding but guaranteed to make you miss the headlines of the 10 o'clock news!