Sligh Furniture and Sligh Clocks
A Michigan furniture family that bought a small Zeeland clock company in 1968 and made grandfather and mantel clocks under its own name until 2005.
A Grand Rapids furniture maker
Sligh was a furniture company long before it made clocks. The Home Furnishings Hall of Fame says Charles R. Sligh founded it in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1880 with his brother-in-law, Louis Hawkins, and that its big idea was making every piece of a bedroom suite in one plant so the pieces matched.
The Depression nearly ended it. In 1932 the stockholders voted to stop manufacturing and sell the assets, and in 1933 Charles R. Sligh Jr. took over the name and went into partnership with Bill Lowry in Holland, Michigan, where desks became the main product. A Sligh-Lowry company formed in 1940 after buying a plant in Zeeland, and the business took the Sligh Furniture name in 1968.
Trend Clock and the move into clocks
Sligh's clocks came from Zeeland, a Michigan town with a long clockmaking history. The Zeeland Historical Society says brothers Gerrit and Gordon Van Tamelen started the Trend Clock Company in 1937 in a basement and garage, brought out their first grandmother clock in 1949 and later added hall clocks.
Sligh bought Trend in 1968. A Furniture World company profile says clocks then grew quickly in the 1970s, just as demand faded for the dormitory furniture that had been one of Sligh's main lines in the 1960s.
The Hall of Fame records that Trend was folded into Sligh in 1975 and that the Trend name gave way to Sligh Clocks in 1984. According to the historical society, when Zeeland's older Colonial Manufacturing Company moved to Kentwood in 1983, it sold its Zeeland factory to Sligh, which made clocks there for about two decades.
See also: how a grandmother clock differs from a grandfather clock on OnlineClock.app.
How to identify and date a Sligh clock
The name on the dial is the quickest clue. The Zeeland Historical Society says clocks made by Trend from 1937 to 1984 are usually marked Trend, that clocks from 1969 to 1984 carry Trend Clocks by Sligh, and that from 1984 until 2005 the clocks were made only under the Sligh name.
So a dial reading just Trend may predate Sligh's ownership or come from its early years, while one reading Sligh alone belongs to the last two decades of production. The society's museum also keeps a collection of old trade catalogs, which it suggests comparing against a clock's model number.
We could not find a reliable published guide to where Sligh put model or serial numbers, or how to read them. Look over the inside of the case and the back of the movement for any label, tag or stamp, and note what you find before asking a clock repairer, who can also identify the movement maker.
Leaving the clock business
In May 2005 Sligh announced that it would drop its floor and mantel clocks at the end of that year and close its domestic clock factory, which Furniture Today placed in Holland, in September 2005. Furniture World reported the company's view that grandfather clocks were no longer a growing market and that the numbers no longer supported keeping the line going after 2005.
In July 2005 Furniture Today reported that Bulova would acquire the rights to the clock line, including the design library and customer and supplier records, and that the new clocks would not carry the Sligh name. Sligh said then that it would keep servicing and repairing its clocks into 2006 and beyond; today, a clock repairer is the practical route. One Zeeland Historical Society page dates the Bulova sale to 2004, a year earlier than the trade press and the Home Furnishings Hall of Fame, which both give 2005; the society's own identification guide also gives 2005 as the year Sligh stopped making clocks.
See also: more American and European clock makers on OnlineClock.app.
Questions people ask
Does Sligh still make grandfather clocks?
No. Sligh stopped making floor and mantel clocks at the end of 2005 and sold the rights to its clock designs to Bulova, which said its new clocks would not carry the Sligh name.
How do I tell how old my Sligh grandfather clock is?
Check the dial. Local historians say Trend Clocks by Sligh appears on clocks from 1969 to 1984, and Sligh alone on clocks from 1984 to 2005. A dial reading only Trend is generally earlier.
What is the difference between Trend and Sligh clocks?
Trend Clock Company was a Zeeland, Michigan maker founded in 1937. Sligh bought it in 1968, sold its clocks as Trend Clocks by Sligh, and switched to the Sligh name in 1984.
Keep exploring
Sources
- Charles R. Sligh, Sligh Furniture (Home Furnishings Hall of Fame)
- Tips to identify your Zeeland made clock (Zeeland Historical Society)
- Clock Manufacturing in Zeeland (Zeeland Historical Society)
- Bulova to acquire Sligh clock business (Furniture Today, July 2005)
- Over 155 Years of Service to the Furniture Industry (Furniture World)
More clock makers from United States
Ansonia · Chelsea Clock · E. Howard · Eli Terry · Emperor Clock Company · Gilbert Clock · Herschede · Howard Miller · Ingraham · New Haven Clock · Ridgeway · Sessions Clock · Seth Thomas · Simon Willard · Telechron · Waterbury Clock Company · Westclox · all clock makers