Clocks Are His Hobby

From the earliest days, of life, when a fond relative first puts a watch up to baby's ear, people are fascinated by timekeepers. In his recent volume, The Bookof American Clocks, which is receiving favorable attention from collectors and students, Brooks Palmer '23 conveys the perpetual charm of clocks, as they have challenged the ingenuity of their makers and the favor of the public, from pre-Revolutionary times to the present.

The steeple or tower clocks without faces or hands, which rang bells at regular intervals for town gatherings; tall or "grandfather" clocks, wall clocks, shelf clocks, and watches, all represent the objects of years of study and pleasure for Palmer. His own home is filled with clocks having highly individualized faces, forms, and voices, from the somberly striking, tall "coffin" clock to the cricket chirp of bedecked shelf clocks. Although his success now has placed him more in the ranks of an authority than a hobbyist, Palmer writes that one of the great satisfactions he has found in wholeheartedly pursuing a hobby has been "the pleasant discovery that one can learn new things even faster than when in college."

He has had to work hard to combine his study of clocks with his full-time job in life insurance. He was a charter instructor in the Life Underwriters' Training Council Course and made extensive contributions to the content of the course. He is also past president of the Life Supervisors' Association of New York. At present vice president of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, he is a regular contributor of articles to such magazines as the Antiques Journal, AmericanCollector, and Hobbies; and wrote the Clocks and Watches section for the NewCollier's Encyclopedia. He is also in frequent demand as a lecturer.

In The Book of American Clocks Palmer has not only provided a volume of particular and general interest; he has produced a much-needed reference book which will be authoritative for years to come. The 312 pictures of clocks and watches made by the late Wallace Nutting and the author, and the list, and whereabouts, of over 6,000 watch and clock makers, represent a tremendous amount of labor. This combined with the modest clarity of the author's introduction brings home forcibly to the reader the reserves of both labor and love possible to the devoted hobbyist.

BROOKS PALMER '23