Clock, brass and earthenware, ca. 1882 to 1885

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThis is a clock of brass and earthenware tiles from around eighteen eighty-two to eighty-five, per the Met. The J. and J. G.

2. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorLow Art Tile Works of Chelsea, Massachusetts.

3. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorA tile company made a clock. So somebody's bathroom wall finally got ideas above its station.

4. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorIt measures about thirty by twenty-five centimetres, per the Met. I have stood before smaller treaties.

5. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorRight, loupe going in. Those are proper tiles round the face, Gloria. Somebody has grouted time.

6. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe museum calls the medium brass and earthenware. The brass is the part that keeps it honest.

7. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorHonest, yes. And heavy, I'd wager, which means one nail gives up and it's the hall floor and the cat.

8. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorYou have no cat.

9. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorI'd get one, for the tragedy. In two thousand nine I watched a shelf let go, and I've never trusted a wall since.

10. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorI was once asked to leave an embassy for touching a clock. I learned that time is not ours to handle.

11. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorRight. The appraisal. Three hours of grouting, two bags of screws that never match, and a landlord saying it's fine.

12. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThat is not a valuation. And it is not for sale. The Met owns it and it stays in the collection.

13. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorThen it's worth exactly that, and I'm keeping the screws.

14. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorPut the loupe down, Dale.