North Coast Imports, Inc.

This heavily carved musical wall trumpeter clock was made by Emilian Wehrle C1880. It was located in the United States last year (2008), and a deal was struck this summer to bring it out West :) The clock is large over 44" in height. The carving is done extremely well. The clock has 7 full relief live animals, the most we have seen on a Wehrle...because of that reason we had to add it to the collection.The case is in mint condition, with no missing carvings. This clock will need a musical restoration, which we will tackle this winter. Check out this clocks and others just like it in our collection .

In a previous post I showed an unusual example of the Rahmenuhr, or "Frame Clock." Similar to that is the more boxy "Kastenuhr," or Box-style clock. Many of which had some painting and like a frame around the clock. You can actually see some pictures of other examples with reverse-painted glass that were sent in the comments . Here's a simpler one:

I couldn't let this one slide by. Here's an odd story for cuckoo clock lovers. Police solve case of missing cuckoo clock Doris Weiske only wanted the safe return of her cuckoo clock, which she entrusted to repair man Hugo Tejero months ago. Tejero — who had handed her business cards with a Plainfield telephone number, but no address — would pick the clocks up from her home in an unincorporated area near Joliet, vowing to return in a week. Working off a photo and his license plate, police found Tejero living in Hoffman Estates. Weiske said police told her Tejero seemed surprised to see them, but that he still had the clock and cards with Weiske's name and phone number written on them. [via Suburban Chicago News ] For those of you wondering: that's an old Schmeckenbecher cuckoo she's holding. Here's another woodcutter cuckoo:

The following is a post in from our friend John, who emailed me: "Frühe Kuckucksuhren. Entwicklungsgeschichte der Schwarzwälder Kuckucksuhr von 1750 bis 1850". In this book Dr. Schneider includes a vast amount of new, original research regarding the history of early Black Forest clocks, clockmakers and their families (many of whose ancestors no longer survive). I have personally found the contents of this book to be essential to the identification of one of my clocks made by the long forgotten Eisenbach clockmaker Johann GEORG Beha. It is my hope that those of you (like me!) that struggle outside the English language will find this summary helpful. Moreover, in the interest of highlighting the contents of this book in the most concise form, I have forgone the formality of proper English and adopted the outline form: Selected topics summary of "Frühe Kuckucksuhren. Entwicklungsgeschichte der Schwarzwälder Kuckucksuhr von 1750 bis 1850": 1) This book contains ...

I've had some questions on the best way to ship cuckoo clocks. Besides making sure you have enough soft packaging (you should have at least 4 inches of bubble wrap in all directions) you'll want to make sure all of the dangly parts are secure. As I mentioned in a previous post , you'll want to wind your clock first and remove the weights before taking it off of the wall. This will leave only the winding side free. You can wrap these loose chains around the bottom of the clock. In order to keep them in place, stick a rubber band through the rings and hook them onto the clock. It's also very very important to remove the weights and pendulum from their hooks and wrap these separately - perhaps even in a separate box. If the weights aren't tightly packed away from the clock they will become like missiles when the box is in motion. When they come loose they can very easily rip large chunks out of you precious clock's beautiful facade. -Make sure the weights can...

Here's something interesting... On this Continue Time clock, two out of the three pointers rotate around another pointer, instead of the central point on the clock face, as with traditional clocks. The resulting kinetic artwork, and functional clock, is continuously changing its shape during a full rotation of twelve hours. While creating mesmerizing patterns on your wall the pointers are still read as with any traditional clock. The Continue Time clock measures 105 centimeters from end to end; a full 12 hours will span a circle of 210 centimeters centimeters of wall. [via Makezine ] Remember, there are more fascinating clocks of modern design here: www.northcoastimports.com/design

Jim Seller's made this amazing box full of gorgeously-machined art-widgets as a gift for a friend. It doesn't actually do anything, except make people feel really good looking at the craftsmanship and love involved. Jim wanted to make something in the style of a 19th century scientific instrument. He calls it the ETD (Earth Tremor Detector). [via Makezine ]

Before the traditional hunting model cuckoo, there was the Bahnhäusle . Before the Bahnhäusle, and after the Shield cuckoo , there was the Rahmenuhr ... Here is a great example from c.1880 with a gold-embossed face. This style might be borrowed from the Morbiers in France and Belgium(?) This Rahmenuhr, or frame clock has an excellently preserved movement with wooden plates. (See the rabbit silhouette at the top?)

It's not as classic as our Sternreiter Alarm Clocks , but it is very pretty: eReleases.com Press Release Distribution Services and Press Release Writing Web 2.0 Online Press Release Distribution

Time is, of course, a measurement. As horologists, we are interested in the development of technology used to get the most accurate measurement possible. I came accross this fascinating article, where... "These silicon spheres , manufactured by metrologists at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) as part of efforts to alleviate dependence on the International Prototype Kilogram , have properties that are as close to truly exact as measurable properties are likely to be for a long time to come: They weigh 1.0000000 kilograms, are smooth to the nearest 0.0000000003 meter, and are round to within 0.000000050 meters. One of them is even monoisotopic." Via boing 2 . [via MAKEzine ]

Fans of North Coast Imports already know about our new and exciting /design series clocks, but we've been adding materials to the website that you need to know about. Check out http://tinyurl.com/classicspace on our www.northcoastimports.com/design site for a new video of these great clocks. related articles: DESIGN

Congratulations lucky owners of new cuckoo clocks! Welcome to the world of clock collecting and horology! Now that you have this treasured heirloom you'll want to follow this blog for more helpful hints and tips on the care of your clock, as well as fascinating information on fun, clock-related news items. We are also pleased to be posting many interesting articles by antique clock experts and their fascinating collections. Check out the sidebar menu of this blog for extra navigational help. This website is huge, with tons of information on a range of horological subjects. On the sidebar, you can see an index for clock adjustments, as well as an index of terms. You can also see an index of instructional articles here or on our main website under "Instructions." To get you started, here's a three-part video on how to setup and hang your new cuckoo clock! Related Posts: Unpack Your Black Forest Clock , Cuckoo Instructions (PDF) , Adjusting the Bird's Tail

From Robert Frost's Banjo : Today’s poem is by Robert Desnos , a marvelously lyrical poet who was very much a part of the Surrealist movement in the 1920s, but who later broke with the Surrealists (& in particular André Breton). I think you'll agree that “Cuckoo” presents a lovely, fairy-tale like dreamscape. The title might be translated as “Cuckoo-Clock,” (because "coucou" in French also means the clock) but this isn’t the primary meaning, which simply refers to the bird. Of course, as I believe Eberle used to tell her writing students, “if you have a radiator & leopard skin pants, you already have a jungle,” so course you have a cuckoo clock once you have a cuckoo." Cuckoo It was all as if in a childlike picture The moon wore an opera hat that eight reflections ricocheted off across the surface of ponds The ghost dressed in a natty shroud Was smoking a cigar at the window of his room At the castlekeep's top story Where the sagacious crow told th...

Followers of North Coast Imports know that we are pleased as punch to be introducing an entirely new line of cuckoo clocks in our /design series . These clocks are a marriage of fine tradition with fine arts (and design). We are even planning an ancillary exhibition tour of artworks by the Black Forest artists who are responsible for creating these clocks. It's good to see that we are not alone in creating a body of artistic work centered around the cuckoo clock. I recently read about The Bird House , a one-act play by Kate Marks receiving its world premiere at Theatre Three. "The play's action begins in a brightly colored tree house in a land called The Bright Side where Louisy (Cotton Wright) and Syl (Christina Shipp) live in a sheltered ignorance that is decidedly not bliss. Initially, the primary source of their anxiety is that the two birds in their cuckoo clock (named "Cuck" and "Koo") can't be made to stay any longer than it takes for the...

For reasons that will soon become clear to you, we at North Coast Imports, are especially fond of a new sub-genre the kids are all talking about - called Steampunk I thought I would write up a short blog post about this great thing, but keep in mind that this post only scratches the surface. There are authors, costumers, artists, film directors, hobbiests , tinkerers , and inventors all adding to and building on Steampunkery at an alarming rate. You can read about Steampunk on Wikipedia , of course, but there are also blogs ... and ... web forums aplenty. "What does a Steampunk do?" You may ask. A Steampunk might collect recordings of turn-of-the-century steam engines. Someone enamored with the Steampunk aesthetic might also turn their humdrum computer into a work of art that looks like it came from Jules Verne's imagination... ...or, a Steampunk might dress the part... The idea might be summed up as a longing for re-injecting style and beauty into our otherwise c...

I have programmed Google to alert me of any mention of the word "Cuckoo Clock" around the world... it comes up with some interesting stuff, as you can imagine. Sometimes it's not relevant to a clock collector, and sometimes it's just silly... " Brüno: Ich come from a wery talented family. My father was one of ze most celebrated cuckoo clock beak makers in ze whole of Schlesswigholstein und mein brother, Durgel, runs ze biggest laminating company in Klagenfurt. He’s amazing - he can laminate anything. In fact, he’s basically ze Johnny Depp of laminating." (via sueddeutsche.de )