Annemarie and Jim Shuman,  You're lucky, indeed, to have inherited one
of the more rare products produced by the Regina Music Box Company of
Rahway, NJ.

Your Style 81 Chime Clock (Serial #8100063) is one of the last clocks
in the series, probably produced in the late 'teens.  There were about
55 made, as I recall, plus a few dozen others in special cases.  The
"arts and crafts" Style 81 is the most common, if you could call one
of four dozen total "common".  Perhaps between 100 and 150 chime clocks
were made altogether.

The clock is actually a standard Seth Thomas grandfather movement,
so an original pendulum may not be impossible to find.  In any case,
a pendulum of the correct length can be made relatively inexpensively,
as can the trip-wire for the clock-to-chime-mechanism connection.

The chime mechanism was produced by Regina, and it is a bear to set
it straight.  When it's working well, however, it fills the house with
the most beautiful songs: folksongs, hymns, and "Big Ben"-style chime
sequences.  I find it the single most entertaining item I've owned in
my 40 years of collecting.

I own one I bought in 1970, and have owned two others along the way,
all three of which I completely rebuilt.  I'll be happy to tell you
more about yours, and what you need to do to get it back in good order.
It's far too complex to write out, so I'll ask you to call me at work
sometime and we'll hope I have some time to talk.  If not, we'll set
a better time for a second call.

You'll find me during the day at WCLV/WRMR radio studios in Cleveland,
Ohio: 216-464-0900.

Rich Marschner

PS: By the way, did you get any discs with your clock?  If so, let me
know what the titles of the six tunes on each disc are, and I'll let
you know if I have some you might want to add to yours.