Time frame

It is a pleasing experience, a kind of poetic symmetry, to shop for old objects in old buildings. In Delaney Antique Clocks in West Townsend, you enter a 200-year-old barn to view handmade tall case clocks - what we'd call grandfather clocks if they didn't cost tens of thousands of dollars. But despite its pricey merchandise, this is not a snooty place (it's a barn, after all). John Delaney's family enterprise boasts the largest collection of antique American tall case clocks in the country. At least 100 are on display at any one time. You can see more tall case clocks here than in any museum.

Delaney Antique Clocks Location: 435 Main St. (Route 119), West Townsend. Phone: 978-597-8044. Website: www.delaneyantiqueclocks.com. Get directions

The most valuable antiques, made in the 19th century by the renowned Willard brothers of Roxbury, now cost $40,000 and up, while English country or Scottish clocks are in the $2,500-$6,500 range.

Chockablock with working clocks, the ambience here is mesmerizing. Imagine the hypnotic sound of scores of swinging pendulums, moving gears, syncopated ticks and tocks, and echoing, melodious chimes.

The barn - actually a connected horse barn and carriage house - dates from the mid-1830s. The wallboards have been painted white, but otherwise it looks pretty much like an old barn.

"We do have a red carpet," says Delaney. "That dresses it up a bit."

That and a hundred museum-quality clocks in cases of maple, birch, cherry, and lustrous, ultra smooth mahogany.

Published in the Boston Globe Calendar's 1999 Wandering New England issue.