Cameel Halim Tumblr Blog

Since his childhood, Cameel Halim, the president of CH Ventures, LLC, has been fascinated by timepieces. Cameel Halim opened the Halim Time and Glass Museum to share his love of timekeeping with the public and to bring together exemplary timepieces from around the world. On various occasions beginning in 1999, the famous Time Museum, which the industrialist, Seth Atwood, founded, put some of its valuable antique clocks on the market. From this collection, Halim ultimately acquired some timepieces. They include a late 18th-century Japanese standing clock. The clock once belonged to the 10th Japanese shogun, a member of the noble and powerful Tokugawa family, which ruled Japan for more than 200 years. He then gave it to his relative as a gift. The standing clock is exceptionally large and displays the Tokugawa family crest, which comprises flower blossoms. In addition, the base of the clock depicts carp swimming among lily buds and kelp. Moreover, the clock’s iron movement has a 30-hour duration. For more information about the Halim Time and Glass Museum, please visit the website, halimmuseum.org/.

Cameel Halim brings more than four decades of experience in real estate development to Illinois-based CH Ventures, where he serves as president and managing member. A dedicated collector of clocks and other timepieces, Cameel Halim is owner of the Halim Time and Glass Museum in Evanston (halimmuseum.org). He began collecting antique timepieces more than 30 years ago and spent the last decade preparing the museum for its public opening, which occurred in September 2017. The museum features two general exhibits: one dedicated to stained glass windows and the other to clocks and timepieces from across the globe. Stained glass windows on display primarily come from the turn of the 20th century from artists such as Tiffany and La Farge, and evoke a sense of peace and spirituality through mottled glass, confetti glass, and copper foils. The timekeeping exhibit includes more than 1,000 clocks and timepieces that reflect the role of time in trade, culture, and navigation, such as a sundial from before Christ's birth and German mechanical pieces from the 16th century.

Cameel Halim has had a passion for clocks ever since his childhood, and has been fascinated with their construction and deconstruction. As an adult, Cameel Halim has used his success in the field of real estate to turn that passion into the Halim Time & Glass Museum (www.halimmuseum.org), which showcases objets d'art and antique clocks from around the world. One of the most momentous drivers in the world of timekeeping was Peter Henlein, a clockmaker and locksmith from Nuremberg, Germany, in the 1500s. Henlein had an eventful early life, including participation in a brawl in which one of his fellow locksmiths, George Glaser, died. After spending four years at the local Franciscan monastery, he returned to his trade in Nuremberg, starting to work on miniaturized spring-powered clock designs. His smallest designs were about three inches in size, and suited to be worn as pendants. His work became well known in European scientific circles, and eventually drew the patronage of local nobility. By 1541 he had been tasked with the creation of clocks great and small, including a large tower clock for a castle in Lichtenau. Though his timepieces had considerable faults, chiefly their typically erratic time keeping and limited portability, their popularity ultimately led the charge into a new age of mechanical clock design.

With Cameel Halim and his wife having collected timepieces and stained glass for many years, they recently opened the Halim Time and Glass Museum to the public. Representing Cameel Halim’s personal collection of rare and culturally significant objects of art, the museum draws from more than 1,100 total timepieces. On the first floor, nearly three dozen stained glass windows from American artists run floor to ceiling. Speaking with the Daily Northwestern, the museum’s stained glass researcher noted that while European artists up to the late 19th century tended to paint on the stained glass, the American masters employed the glass itself as a painting medium. They created new colors as well as embedded textures such as herringbone, which was able to impart the appearance of feathers. In readying the stained glass for its exhibition, the Halim family oversaw a cleaning and restoration process for many pieces. When the glass was cleaned and put back together, they were placed into custom-built display cases with backlighting that fully displays the glasses’ vivid colors.

A property investor based in Wilmette, Illinois, Cameel Halim is the owner and managing member of CH Ventures. Cameel Halim is also an avid collector of antique timepieces and stained glass. In an effort to share the impressive collection with the public, the Halim family opened the Halim Time & Glass Museum (halimmuseum.org) in Evanston, Illinois in September 2017. Over 1,100 timepieces are on display at the museum. In the midst of the Industrial Revolution in America, a little-known Connecticut clockmaker utilized concepts that led to the invention of the assembly line in the early 1900s. Well before Henry Ford perfected mass production, clockmaker Eli Terry worked with standardized parts and practices that allowed him to create an impressive quantity of fine timepieces. When Terry apprenticed with a master clockmaker in Plymouth, clocks and watches were manufactured entirely by hand. Once he began his own business, he started to explore different ways to simplify the manufacturing process. First, he utilized a hand-operated machine with a foot-powered lathe. Later, he moved to water-powered machines that could produce more and more wooden parts for his clocks. His efforts were so successful that Terry was able to produce 4,000 identical clocks that were sold at affordable prices. Though Eli Terry does not receive the recognition bestowed upon Henry Ford, his contributions to mass production are undeniable.

A longtime Chicago real estate executive, Cameel Halim has spearheaded a number of projects that achieved urban restoration goals. An avid collector of timepieces and decorative arts, Cameel Halim recently partnered with his wife and family in establishing the Halim Time & Glass Museum, located in Evanston, Illinois. One of the distinguished pieces in the museum’s collection is a Gille L'Aine mantel clock that incorporates four semi-nude gilt bronze figures. A renowned clockmaker of the 18th century, Pierre Gille II incorporated an ormolu bronze casing technique designed to last and used a full palette of Louis XVI stylistic eslements, including floral decorative motifs. These timepieces are part of a cartel clocks tradition that began in 1750 and spread to Scandinavia, Austria, and England. The name comes from the bracket (cartella), which defines their cartouche shape. The cartouche has its origins in Egyptian hieroglyphs and involves an oval shape bordered by a horizontal line that was used to indicate that the text signified a royal. Highly valued to this day, cartel clocks incorporate scrollwork in a Rococo style that gave way to the strictness and symmetry of classicism in the 1780s.

Cameel Halim is a trained engineer and a successful real estate executive who has lived and worked in the greater Chicago area for nearly 50 years. Over the decades, he has purchased ornate and historic clocks to amass a considerable collection, housed at the long-awaited Halim Family Museum of Time and Glass in Evanston, Illinois. Among the hundreds of timepieces in this impressive collection are an 18th-century Japanese case clock that was owned by a national ruler and a French Breguet pocket watch that featured design elements for the visually impaired. The collection places a marked emphasis on European clocks with manufacture dates between 1500 and 1800. These pieces trace a history of horology (the study of timekeeping) that begins with humanity’s first attempts to mechanize timekeeping and ends with the Industrial Revolution. In addition to his massive antique clock collection, Cameel Halim also owns a 2,700-volume horology library, and 70 stained-glass windows from Tiffany and other respected manufacturers. All these objects are to be available for public perusal at the Halim Time and Glass Museum.

Cameel Halim is known in the Chicago area for buying historical buildings and restoring them to a livable state. One of Cameel Halim’s projects has been converting a Victorian home in the Evanston area into a museum for timepieces. Unfortunately, a fire in 2011 burned down that original structure, but Halim started rebuilding from the ground up - and will soon open the Halim Time & Glass Museum to the world in late summer 2017. Around 200 pieces from the now-defunct Time Museum in Rockford were purchased for the Halim Museum collection. When the Rockford museum closed in 1999, the city of Chicago was unable to buy all the timepieces, so many parts of the collection went to private collectors. The Halim Time & Glass Museum will house around 600 pieces dating back to the 17th century and earlier. The pieces come from all over the world, including England, Japan, and Germany, and represent history, art, and mechanics all at once. A Japanese case clock owned by a shogun in the 1700s once had its own clock-winder to do the job every few hours. A clock from the 1800s that was installed in the Princeton College observatory involves a lion and leopard hourly circling a person bound to a tree in the center, indicating the “death of the hour.” A skeleton clock that was shattered in a World War II German air raid on London has been repaired and will also be on display. The timepiece collection will be world-class, and the museum hopes to attract horologists and others from all over the world to enjoy the collection.

Real estate professional Cameel Halim has helped preserve beautiful and historic homes in the Kenilworth area of Chicago. A clock aficionado, Cameel Halim also runs the Halim Family Museum of Time & Glass. Founded to carry on the tradition of the former Time Museum in Rockford, Illinois, the Halim Family Museum of Time & Glass looks to open in April 2017 and boasts an extensive collection of clocks and watches. Located in Evanston, the Halim Family Museum plans to host a variety of events to showcase the work of different artists and clock makers. The museum commemorated the celebration of Easter with a display of stained glass depictions of the resurrection of Christ by artist Frederick Wilson of Tiffany Studios. In honor of the birthday of John La Farge and the East gallery featuring the American Stained Glass Revolution, the museum also exhibits a stained glass window showcase titled Cornucopia and Wreaths. For more information about the Halim Family Museum of Time & Glass and upcoming events, visit http://halimtimeandtiffanyglassmuseum.com/.

A trained civil engineer and experienced real estate professional, Cameel Halim has owned and operated CH Ventures for more than a decade. Outside of his responsibilities with CH Ventures, Cameel Halim is affiliated with multiple nonprofit and public initiatives. He recently constructed the Halim Museum of Time and Glass in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. Located at 1560 Oak Street, the Halim Museum of Time and Glass houses a private collection of rare and significant timepieces and works of American stained glass. Established by Cameel and his wife Hoda, and their three daughters Emily, Nefrette and Mireille, the museum reflects the family’s profound love for art and history while allowing them to share the deep sense of satisfaction that they receive from extraordinary objects with interesting stories. Timepieces displayed by the museum include a circa-1790 Vulliamy Derby mantel clock and an elephant automaton clock from China. Its stained-glass pieces include a Woodruff, Porter, and Sanford Memorial triptych by Mary Tillinghast and “River of Life” by Tiffany Studios.

A clock collector, Cameel Halim has acquired millions of dollars' worth of antique timepieces. Cameel Halim has been able to turn his passion for clocks into a museum that holds many of his pieces and hosts regular events showcasing particularly beautiful artifacts. Based in Evanston, Illinois, the Halim Family Museum of Time & Glass hosts numerous clocks and glass art pieces from numerous eras and countries. Many of these pieces come from the Time Museum, which sold many pieces during the 2000s. Other articles come from auction houses and private dealers around the world. The museum's collection includes Chinese timepieces as well as Beijing glass and ceramics, thanks to the operators' appreciation of Chinese art and culture. More recent art and glass objects, such as a Tiffany glass image of Jesus Christ, also comprise some of the museum's offerings. Visitors can see the history of mechanical clocks and glass art shift and evolve over time thanks to the museum's expansive collection.

Cameel Halim is a real estate investment professional with over 40 years of experience in the industry. In addition to his professional interest in real estate, Cameel Halim also maintains an antique clock collection. He has put the collection on display in a museum he created for his pieces in Evanston, Illinois. The museum is housed in a 4-story building and displays clocks and Tiffany stained glass. Many of the more than 600 antique pieces contained within the owner’s collection were created before the year 1800, with the oldest clock dating to 1520. Prior to finding a home at the current museum in Evanston, many of the pieces belonged to an exhibit at the Time Museum founded by Seth Atwood in Rockford, Illinois. When the Time Museum closed in 1999, about 200 clocks from the exhibit were purchased for around $5 million. Types of clocks within the existing collection include pocket watches, skeleton clocks, case clocks, and table clocks.

Cameel Halim is a Chicago-based real estate developer who strives to preserve the rich history of his area by buying historic properties to prevent them from being torn down. Cameel Halim and his daughter, Nefrette, went through one such ordeal with a home on Kenilworth Avenue in Kenilworth, Illinois. The historic house at 157 Kenilworth Avenue was built in 1908 by the firm of prolific architect Daniel Burnham. Now set for demolition, the home’s owner held a salvage auction to get rid of anything in the house before teardown. Cameel and Nefrette Halim looked on, saddened to see such rich history get sold off at bargain-bin prices. Though Cameel Halim had previously attempted to buy the property, he and the owner could not agree on the terms. With less than a week before demolition, the owner and Mr. Halim finally reached an agreement, and he purchased the property for $2.35 million. While he intended to renovate and sell the property, Cameel Halim said he planned on putting in a restriction that prevented the property from ever being torn down.

Professionally, Cameel Halim is a civil engineering professional. Cameel Halim also is a member of the Coptic Assembly of America, an organization that advocates for the rights of Coptic Christians in Egypt. The Coptic Assembly of America works for equality and freedom through the formation of coalitions, community education, and meetings with decision makers in Washington, DC. The Copts are a group of people within who can trace their ancestry back to the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. Within this group, Coptic Christians living in Egypt find it difficult in the current social and political landscape to secure certain civil liberties, such as educational, economic, and governmental rights. In an effort to procure these rights, the Coptic Assembly of America encourages its members to vote in United States elections, educate the American government and public about its mission, and to motivate United States-based Coptic youth to take action. The Coptic Assembly of America’s youth program encourages members of younger generations to contribute to the cause through podcasts, blogs, and group projects that benefit Coptic Christians in Egypt. The Coptic Assembly of America believes that American Coptic youth have an advantage in spreading the word about the problems facing their Egyptian counterparts due to their enthusiasm, energy, and their familiarity with modern platforms, such as podcasts and blogs.