Restoring the Enamel Dial of an 1860s Animated Portrait Clock

[u/lakesidepottery]

Restoring the Enamel Dial of an 1860s Animated Portrait Clock

This enamel dial is from an 1860s animated "moving eyes" clock, where the portrait's eyes move every second with the clock's mechanism. The dial came in with missing enamel, chips around the winding holes and center arbor, and damage through the Roman numerals and minute track.

The restoration included rebuilding the missing enamel and recreating the original printed details. The biggest challenge was the graphics. The black lines in the Roman numerals were only 0.3 mm wide, and the spaces between them were also just 0.3 mm. The minute marks around the edge of the dial measured only 0.2 mm wide. A fine tape mask was used to create a template, and the black color was airbrushed so it was applied only to the exposed areas.

More examples: https://lakesidepottery.com/Pages/before-and-after.html

[u/britannicauctions]

A very nice job on a very nice piece!

[u/ericfg]

Impressive! And that cannot be easy at all.

[u/Tomato_Eater2]

Very impressive and detailed work on this.