Chelsea Clock: Ansonia Clock

Sunday, 9 September 2012

Ansonia Clock

The Ansonia Clock Company was one of the major 19th century American clock manufacturers. It produced millions of clocks in the period between 1850, its year of incorporation, and 1929, the year the company went into receivership and sold its remaining assets to Soviet Russia. Here is a brief timeline describing the events leading to the formation of the Ansonia Clock Company and to its ultimate demise. 1844 - The Ansonia Brass Company is formed by Anson Green Phelps

Although he became one of the great mercantile capitalists of his time, Anson G. Phelps had rather humble beginnings. Born to an old Connecticut family, he was orphaned at age ten, and soon after became a saddlemaker’s apprentice. He later moved to Hartford and went into business for himself as a merchant and a shrewd trader. He bartered saddles for cotton from South Carolina and then sold the cotton in New York. With the proceeds from the cotton sales he purchased dry goods to sell back in his Hartford store.