Images(4)

Miniature Tall Case Clock

Date20th century (probably)

Maker Unidentified

OriginAmerica, Maine

MediumMahogany, tulip poplar, lightwood inlay, glass; steel, iron, and brass

DimensionsOverall: 33 × 7 1/2 × 5in. (83.8 × 19.1 × 12.7cm)

Credit LineBequest of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Hennage

Object number2020-162,A-D

DescriptionMiniature mahogany tall case clock; arched hood with three fluted plinths supporting brass ball and spire finials with pierced fret between plinths formed by concentric holes of two sizes drilled in an arched pattern; arched hood door flanked by fluted columns with brass bases and capitals over an ogee molding; trunk with arched door outlined on door in lightwood string with incurved corners at base of door and around door with rectangular section outlined below door; fluted quarter columns with brass bases and capitals; diamond shaped bone or ivory inlaid escutcheon on trunk door; broad coved waist molding over base outlined with rectangle of lightwood stringing with incurved corners; rounded base molding over straight bracket feet with double scallop at center of front skirt.

Dial:
One piece white painted dial 4.4” W x 6 11/16” H with Roman numeral hours, moon phase dial with two protruding hemispheres and Arabic lunar calendar numerals and landscapes between moon faces. Red floral painted corner spandrels. Brass hour and minute hands. Grommeted winding holes.

Movement description:
Eight-day brass time, strike, and moon phase weight-driven movement measuring 4.4” H x 3.5” W. Plate thickness is 0.067”. Clearance between front and back plates is 0.87”. The outside surfaces of both plates are silver plated. Clock has an anchor-recoil escapement. A count wheel strike mounted outside the back plate sounds the hours on a 2.2” diameter brass bell. The strike train is on the right side of the movement. The time train is on the left. All gearing has lantern (as opposed to traditional cut) pinions. The strike hammer head is round brass. The bell stand is screwed to the outside of the back plate to the left of the pendulum bridge.

Four plain cylindrical brass pillars are riveted into the back plate and fastened via nuts at the front plate. The movement is fastened to the seat board by steel hooks over the bottom pillars. The mainwheel barrels are not grooved for weight cord management. All time train wheels have five-arm crossings. The motion work is solid. The brass crutch-rod has an open-end fork chamfered at the outside edge. The pendulum bridge is rectangular horizontal brass with a rounded end fastened to the back plate with a single screw.

Brass pendulum, rectangular cast 14.9 lb weight with tombstone-like imagery cast into front of weight.
Label TextThis miniature tall case clock closely resembles New England clocks of the early 19th century that were influenced by the Boston/Roxbury case design promulgated by the Willard family of clockmakers. The pierced fret of the hood, formed by drilling holes rather than cutting the wood with a fret saw, suggests either that the clock was made outside of the mainstream Massachusetts urban centers or that the fret saw available was not small enough to create the delicate pattern. While the design of the clock mimics that of early 19th century tall case clocks, family history suggests it originally could have come into the family closer to 1830. But the case construction and the dial and movement technology suggest this piece was produced later, perhaps made to look like an older object.
MarkingsType written paper label adhered to the inside of the trunk door "HISTORY/ Acquired by James F./ Patten, Bath, Maine,/ Circa 1830./ Inherited by son,/ Frederick H. Patten, in/ 1883./ Inherited by Clara A. K./ Patten, widow of said/ Frederick - 1889./ Under will of Clara A. K./ Patten, inherited by/ James Henry McLellan/ in 1912./ Acquired from Estate of/ James Henry McLellan in/ 1959."
ProvenanceDescended in the Patten and McLellan families of Bath, Maine.
Line of descent: James F. Patten, Bath, Maine c.1830; to son Frederick H. Patten in 1883; to wife Clara A. K. Patten in 1889; to James Henry McLellan in 1912; purchased in 1959 by William Schwind; 1986 Sold to a woman in Chicago; 1986 Repurchased in 1991.
Sotheby's sale 6957, (January, 1997) lot 924.

Per family lore (as typed on a paper adhered to the inside of the clock door), the clock was acquired by James Fulton Patten, a prominent and wealthy member of the town of Bath, ME, around 1830. He was born in Topsham in 1801. His brothers, Captains John and George F. Patten, established a shipping and ship-building business in Bath, ME and James eventually joined them, working as a ship captain on some of their ships, and joining in their merchant business. James had two children, Charles E. Patten, and Fredrick H. Patten. Charles died before his father, and Fredrick inherited his father’s estate upon his passing in 1883.

Fredrick H. Patten (1838-1889) was born in Bath, worked in New York City in the shipping business, and later returned to Bath where he was listed as a Commission Merchant and ship broker. On the death of his father, he returned permanently to Bath. He married Clara Allan Kendrick in 1883, and died shortly after, in 1889. According to HISTORY OF BATH: “Mr. Patten was a quiet, unassuming gentleman, of striking personal appearance and genial manners, whose departure in the prime of like has been greatly missed by his numerous friends and acquaintances.”

Clara Allen Kendrick Patten was born in Wisconsin, according to census records. It’s unclear who her parents were, but she was living in the household of Maria Louise Kendrick McLellan in the 1860 and 1870 censuses. In 1860, Maria Louise was 23 and Clara was 11, so it seems likely that Clara was a younger sibling living with her married sister. Maria Louise married Charles H. McLellan, son of General James McLellan, and he was a prominent member of the Bath community. After the death of her husband in 1889, Maria Louise appears in the 1900 census as a boarder in New York City. However, starting in 1902, she was found periodically in the Bath city directories until her death in 1912.

James Henry McLellan (1863-1959) was the son of Maria Louise Kendrick McLellan and Charles H. Kendrick. He was first recorded in the 1870 census in his parents’ household along with Clara Kendrick, likely his aunt. He inherited the clock upon her death, and it remained is his estate until his passing in 1959 in Orange, CA.

James Fulton Patten's (1801-1883) wife, Sophia Ann Harding (1809-1882), was descended from grandparents Hezekiah (1745-1825) and Eunice Freeman Harding (1747-1797 or 1827) originally of Truro, Barnstable Co., Massachusetts. Hezekiah appears to have moved his family including his young son Capt. Nehemiah Harding (1779-1865), later father of Sophia Ann Harding, to the area of Brunswick or Bath, Maine around 1781.