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She's Wound Up Over Collection

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By ELAINE MARKOWITZ Tribune correspondent

Published: January 2, 2008

SUN CITY CENTER - Elizabeth Hendricks always knows what time it is.

In her sunlit home in Sun City Center, clocks abound. Large clocks adorn walls, and miniature ones fill the shelves of curio cabinets. Some lure the eye to a table top, where a pendulum swings on one and a circular plate resembling a flying saucer swirls gently around the conical-shaped top of another.

"We just changed 185 batteries," Hendricks said one recent morning. "I buy 100 batteries at a time for the miniatures."

Hendricks and her husband, Al, own more than 200 clocks, about 190 of which are miniature. Telling time is not their most important function for Hendricks, though. Music, beauty, motion and pure entertainment give the clocks an even greater value.

For about 15 years, Hendricks has been collecting clocks, learning about them as she goes and seeking interesting timepieces all over the world.

Collecting was not on her mind when she bought her first clock. That purchase, an American-made grandfather clock - a chain-driven Howard Miller brand that stands 94 inches tall - stretches high against a living room wall.

"After that one I purchased other standing clocks," she said.

In 2002, when the couple moved from York, Pa., to Sun City Center, Hendricks opted to sell most of them.

She auctioned off six - a grandfather clock, a smaller grandmother clock and four large wall clocks.

"I profited on all the clocks," she said, "and I decided then that clocks were a good investment."

At some point clocks became a hobby.

Her husband bought her a Small World musical clock in Mobile, Ala., about 15 years ago.

"Small World clocks are all motion clocks," she said.

On that clock, French-style doors open hourly, revealing a carousel. As the horses go up and down, a different tune plays.
Motion clocks became an immediate draw for Hendricks, and she purchased four more. On one, the numbers swirl around hourly; on another, a blimp bounces along nonstop, and music plays on the hour.

Her favorite piece is a Small World oval wall clock on which the numbers shift in a kaleidoscope pattern to the sounds of "Silent Night" and other Christmas carols.

The Hendrickses spent years traveling and brought home many foreign additions to their American collection.

"I have clocks from Japan, Venice, Paris, Lucerne, Luxembourg and other European countries," Hendricks said. "The only place we've been where I couldn't find a clock was Alaska."

"I've bought the majority," she said, "but our children also give them to us on birthdays and anniversaries."

Four children have significantly increased her collection, she said.

At this point Hendricks is thinking small.

"It has to be a miniature," she said, "since I've run out of space."

The miniature collection, which features wee clocks that fit easily into the palm of a small hand, is a varied lot. Most are fashioned from Hendricks' favorite metal, brass. Some also are made of crystal, including the noted Irish Waterford crystal.

Glass shelves provide a feast of shiny, pocket-sized timepieces. On one shelf stands tiny musical instruments, including a player piano, a cello, a bass and an old-fashioned gramophone.

Sports objects crop up on a second shelf. Tiny replicas of basketballs, baseballs, golf balls and tennis racquets draw the eye. A miniature bicycle clock stands nearby. For animal lovers, bears, swans, horses and a seal balancing a tiny ball-shaped clock on its nose all show accurate time.

Hendricks said she enjoys looking at her clocks. To date, she has not exhibited them or joined a collector's organization, although she has been invited to do so. The clocks provide a perpetual form of entertainment and are low-maintenance.

"All we do is change the batteries once a year," she said. "If a clock needs a battery we usually leave it alone until the time changes and then do both at once."

Al Hendricks, who has long left the hobby to his wife, still plays a part changing batteries and cleaning clocks as needed.

The collecting fever has found its way down to the next generation. Hendricks' daughter Pamela Apelian, also of Sun City Center, collects miniature shoes.

"Mom got us started collecting," Apelian said.

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