Likely to be over 150 years old, my grandfather’s Hamburg American clock had sat on a shelf for over 70 years since he left it to me. I didn’t have a winding key although I remembered that it’s musical mechanism worked.
I thought it about time that I had the clock restored. I visited Siegfried’s Mechanical museum in Rudesheim on the river Rhine in Germany. It houses over 350 mechanical musical instruments where I saw some similar clocks. I sent details of my clock to them and they suggested that it would be worth restoring. So, That’s what I set out to do.
Looking for a local clock restorer I came upon Apparent Time in Tangmere run by Philippe Arent. who worked on the clock restoring the case and fixing missing items, but told me that the escapement was badly worn and would not work properly again. The clock is too old to get a replacement part but its mechanical musical metal comb and drum pin cylinder system still works perfectly - although we cannot identify the tune.
So, I recorded the music and sent it to Rudesheim asking if they could name that tune.