The Ansonia Clock Company traces its roots to 1850, when metal dealer Anson Greene Phelps formed it as a subsidiary of his Ansonia Brass Company in Ansonia, Connecticut, partnering with Bristol clockmakers Theodore Terry and Franklin Andrews. After a series of factory fires in Connecticut, the company relocated its operations to Brooklyn, New York between 1878 and 1883, eventually building what was billed as the largest clock factory in the world.
Under designer Henry J. Davies, Ansonia became famous for its highly decorative figural and novelty clocks, ornate cases featuring cherubs, animals, and mythological figures, alongside more conventional crystal regulators, iron-cased clocks, and swinging clocks. At its peak the company offered hundreds of different case styles and exported clocks worldwide, with retail outlets in New York, Chicago, and London, before production wound down in the late 1920s.