Posted 6 years ago
rlwindle
(138 items)
Although Smith Metal Arts made these clocks and the MoonCrest lines, they did not keep records on how many were made
Smith Metal Arts is located in Buffalo NY, it is still in operation today as Smith Mc Donald Corp still turning out very exclusive and expensive desk sets as they did earlier (see second picture). They no longer manufacture their earlier digital, or jump hour clocks they now include a regular analog clock with their sets now.
SilverCrest Clocks are attached to pen trays unlike their little brother MoonCrest clocks which are not.
The first picture features SMA "Bronze Duo" jump clock, the "Bronze Duo" line of desk accessories is still in production but the jump clock has been replaced by an analog clock.
Like the MoonCrest clocks, the clocks on this page were manufactured so they could accept either a Pennwood or a Lawson digital movement. If the clock had a Lawson movement in it the model number is usually missing unless engraved in the metal. Vendors on eBay try to pass them off as Lawson manufactured clocks because of the Lawson movement and the higher bids Lawson clocks draw.
There is one exception on this page in the fourth picture, Randy Juster of his Decopix website (http://www.decopix.com/the_lawson_clock_story/) after examining this presentation clock seemed to think it was probably manufactured by Lawson as a special product. This clock is not drilled to except a Pennwood movement like other SMA clocks. The clock was presented to Charles E. Sweet And has a brass plate with "Charles E. Sweet" engraved on it.
The inscription reads;
"In appreciation of his splendid service To the Farm publication Industry of America.
Agricultural Publishers Association"
About Charles M. Sweet
Charles E. Sweet Identified with the Capper Publications, Inc., for the last thirty-six years, Charles E. Sweet was born in Burlington, Kan., August 17, 1893, son of Gilbert and Emma Louise Whistler Sweet. He began his career in the publishing business by working as a printer’s devil while attending Burlington High School, and after his graduation became a printer, then a reporter on the Burlington Republican. In the fall of 1913 he entered the University of Kansas journalism department to learn more about the business, worked as a printer in a job shop Suring the three year course , and published a weekly newspaper for Ralph Tannal in the summer of 19 14. For several months in 1916 he published a weekly for Charles H. Browne, then served a short time as city editor of the Iola Register, and i n 1917 went to work as a reporter on the Kansas City Star. When World W ar I started he entered the second Officers Training Camp, was commissioned a second lieutenant, later promoted to first lieutenant, and serve d a total of nineteen months.
Following his honorable discharge from the Army, Mr. Sweet returned to the Kansas City Star as an assistant telegraph editor but in September 1 919, came to Topeka as advertising manager 0f the Farmer's Mail & Breeze. This was a consolidation of the old North Topeka Mail and the Kansa s Breeze, both of which the late Sen. Arthur Capper had purchased in the 1890's as the beginning of a farm press publishing venture which grew into the greatest farm press in the United States. Mr. Sweet continued through the years with The Capper Publications, Inc., and in 1940 was appointed to the present position of advertising manager.
He has been a director of the Agricultural Publishers Assn. Since 1939 and served as its president 1940-47. He has been a Director of the Audi t Bureau of Circulation since 1942 and is a member of the Magazine Publishers Assn, the Direct Mail Advertising Assn, the Topeka Rotary Club, American Legion, Topeka Country Club, and Chicago Athletic Assn. And the Central Congregational Church of Topeka.
He was married December 2, 1917 to Mildred Eppard. They have three daughters, Mary Lou (Mrs. Ralph L. Christy) of Silver Spring, Md., Patricia Jean (Mrs. John M. Frederick) of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Carla ( Mrs. Carl B. Tilford) of Topeka.
In the third picture is a very Art Deco SilverCrest clock designed by Peter Muller Munk, who also designed early cases for Pennwood.
It is not known if this beauty went into production or not, no models have been discovered, if found it will demand a really high price.
Peter Muller-Munk (1904-1967)
Peter studied as a silversmith at the University of Berlin and emigrated from Germany to the US in 1926. He began his career working at Tiffany’s in New York as a metalworker from 1926 to 1928, exhibiting his work at the 1928 Macy's exposition. He established his own silver studio in New York in 1929 and exhibited at several Metropolitan Museum shows in 1929 and 1930. His most famous piece was his 1935 Art Deco Normandie pitcher, named after the French ocean liner of the same name that debuted that same year. The pitcher was made by Revere Copper and Brass, Inc, and was produced until 1941. In 1935 he accepted a position at the Carnegie Institute of Technology to replace Donald Dohner as head of the industrial design program and remained there until he left in 1944 to devote full time to the industrial design office in Pittsburgh he had established in 1938. His major clients included Dow Chemical in 1943 to stimulate public interest in post-war plastics, and Waring, for whom he designed their now classic 1937 chrome "waterfall" blender. In 1954, he was president of the Society of Industrial Designers, and in 1957, became the first president of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, through which he became well-known internationally. In 1959 he won one of the first ALCOA industrial design awards, and consulted with US Steel regarding their newly-introduced vinyl-coated steel sheets, with decorative patterns embossed into the vinyl, and which could be formed, drawn or stamped like any sheet steel. In 1964, he consulted with US Steel regarding their Unisphere symbol that dominated the 1964 World’s Fair, and still remains in Flushing Meadows. Peter Muller-Munk Associates (PMMA) continues as an active design firm in Pittsburgh, well-known for way-finding design at major airports and public spaces.
