Eli Terry - Bootleg Eli Terry Clock Designs

Bootleg Eli Terry Clock Designs

Eli Terry's success in mass producing and selling an affordable shelf clock for the public drew much inspiration from other entrepreneurs in Connecticut and beyond. Immediately Terry's former partners Seth Thomas and Silas Hoadley began making similar clocks. Others in the Bristol and Plymouth communities manufactured movements, cases or other clock parts for others to assemble and sell complete clocks in order to compete with Terry. Terry was forced to continually update his patents. Paradoxically his updated patents became very narrowly described and this enabled competitors to make slight changes to their design and evade patent infringement. In 1826-7, Eli Terry filed a lawsuit in Litchfield district court against Seth Thomas for patent infringement. Judgement was in favor of Terry but it is unclear if he ever collected compensation. Contemporary historians believe the suit was staged between the two principals in order to dissuade others from competition, but it is unclear that this is correct since Terry, unlike Thomas, was the least interested in the business side of mass clock production.

As one example of the frenzy at the time to copy Terry's designs, Reeves & Co made clocks in the United States to the Eli Terry design. These clocks faithfully copied the scrollwork and wooden movement of the original Eli Terry clocks. However, since the designs of these clocks were infringements of the Terry patents, Reeves & Co. were forced out of business and were also forced to destroy their stock of unsold clocks. Very few genuine Reeves & Co. clocks still exist. One excellent example of an operating Reeves & Co. shelf clock is in the John Basmajian clock collection, in Altadena, California. Due to its rarity it is extremely valuable to collectors.