In 1850 Anson G. Phelps, a wealthy Connectiuct importer of tin, brass, and copper founded the Ansonia Clock Company. This was six years after he built a copper rolling mill near Derby, Connectiuct. It is said that he started the business with $100,000. Anson Phelps along with Eli Terry and Franklin Andrews advertised their firm in the Connecticut Business Directory with the following statement: "Ansonia Clock Company, Manufacturers and Dealers in Clocks and Timepieces of Every Description, Wholesale and Retail, Ansonia, Connecticut."

Ansonia Brass and Copper Company 1865

After a fire destroyed the factory in 1854, Phelps' company moved to Ansonia, where it was renamed the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company. The company made clocks there from 1854 until 1878. In 1878 Phelps moved the company to Brooklyn, New York and it was reorganized under its original name: the Ansonia Clock Company. In 1879 just after the move to New York, a fire destroyed the factory. A year later after completing a new factory in Brooklyn, Ansonia expanded its business. The Ansonia company developed many new styles of clocks, and novelty and figurine clocks became a big part of its clock operation.

Swinger

Ansonia introduced all sorts of wall and shelf clocks, including swing clocks. The company marketed imitation French clocks as well as novelties. The Ansonia Clock Company built the "Bobbing Doll" which it patented in 1855 and "Swinging Doll," which it patented in 1859 and both of these clocks were considered novelties. The Ansonia catalog in 1889 featured three versions of the Bobbers, called Jumper No.1 and Jumper No. 2. and Jumper No. 3. Ansonia was known for its diversity of clock types. Many of Ansonia's older and more unusual clocks have been reproduced, including the "Bobbing" and "Swinging" dolls.

Jumper

The company's specialty clocks included the swing clocks, in which female figures held swinging pendulums. Also popular were the Royal Bonn porcelain shelf varieties and the statue clocks, which the company advertised as figure clocks. Among its novelty clocks, the Crystal Palace, Sonnet, Helmsman, and Army and Navy clocks have proven to be excellent collector's items and have rapidly increased in value. The clocks were marked "New York" as thier place of origin.

Prior to World War 1, Ansonia had sales representatives in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, India, and a score of other countries. After the war was over its business deteriorated in quality and dropped in the number of clocks produced. Manufacturing stopped in the spring of 1929. By the end of 1929 Ansonia's material assets were sold to the Russian government. After the summer of 1929 the Ansonia Clock Company was defunct.