Item rappears

A lot of people will think, "You just weren't looking there". But anything that obvious just was NOT overlooked. Yesterday I started work on an old 1839 four foot table or wall clock I picked up at an auction at a good price because it was in so many pieces. But the most important pieces appeared to still be there, scattered in the vast maul of the lower case. I looked the clock up on line. Luckily it was clearly marked as to maker and even had its instructions glued to be back, on the inside, of the cabinet. The works were totally brass and of a form that I was totally unfamiliar with. It was kind of like putting together a jig-saw puzzle with no picture to go by. It took a while but I finally got the works in their proper places with nothing apparently missing. Needless to sat when working on this clock it was necessary to remove the hands and face in order to get into the clockworks. When removing the hands I was very careful to place the hands in a protected area of my work table so they would be readily available when I replaced the clock face. As you have probably guessed, when I put the clock face back on the clock I discovered I had the hour hand but not the minute hand. As those hands were over 176 years old, I knew darn good and well I'd never find a replacement. I looked everywhere for that minute hand including under the work table That minute hand was simply gone. In order to try out the mechanical workings of the clock I resorted to a more modern minute hand that fit (kind of) so I could see if the mechanism would work. I wound the clock (which is run by very heavy weights) though unlike a grandfather clock, the weights are raised with a key rather than pulling a chain. I started the clock and to my utter amazement it ran. Once again I looked all around my work area for that minute hand with no luck. The temporary minute hand looked totally out of place, but it worked (kind of). Time to close the store so my wife and I closed up and went home. I left the old clock running. This morning, about 10am my wife and I reopened the store. I was very pleased to see the old clock still running though it was way slow. And to my utter amazement, laying directly in front of the clock, in absolutely plain, it cannot be missed, sight lay the missing minute hand. I was beyond surprised. Where had this minute hand come from? How on earth could it be here, in plain sight. No way did I overlook it. It was not there last night when we left. No one has a store key but my wife and I. Mice, goblins, ghosts? Where did that dang key come from? Anyone out there have any explanation?