Expert: William J Perkins - 4/30/2008

Question
My grandma has a Hermes figural ansonia clock with a mechanism that is in arabic numerals...I say the original was sold with roman numerals and that hers is a replacement...she told me that when you could always take it back to Ansonia dealer and they will put any part you want and sell it to you that way....what do you think?  is it a replacement or maybe purchased like that?  thanks

Answer
That particular Ansonia had a variety of, "off the shelf" options;
Arabic or Roman dial, case finished in Gilt, Japanese Bronze, Barbedienne or Syrian Bronze.  
As an aside:
In 1989 I acquired one of these clocks, Syrian Bronze, with Roman Numeral dial, (my preference) in very good condition.  At that time it was valued at $385.  
Regards WJP