Images(25)

Tall Case Clock

Dateca. 1760

Artist/Maker Edward Duffield

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumMahogany, chestnut, white cedar, white pine, tulip poplar, black walnut, yellow pine, and glass. Brass, steel, iron, and lead.

DimensionsOH: 113"; OW: 23 1/2"; OD: 11 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-583,A

DescriptionAppearance: Tall case clock; cartouche (possibly replaced) of carved phoenix flanked by leafy C-scrolls on plinth surmounts scrolled pediment, ends of which are topped by flame-over-ball finials; frieze decorated with applied rocaille carving consisting of central stylized shell flanked by leafy C-scrolls, vines, and flowers; hood, fronted with glazed door, encloses arched brass dial with silvered sphere showing phases of moon in the arch above a silvered moon phase numerical disk and a strike/silent lever immediately below marked S-N, flanked by gilt metal mounts; silvered chapter circle with Roman numerals for the hours; outer rim of circle marked for minutes in Arabic numerals; engraved "E. Duffield" and "Philada" in script on either side of numeral 30; in central upper portion of dial, with its matted gilt ground, is a small silvered seconds circle with Arabic numerals and in the lower portion, a rectangular date apperature with beveled edges and engraved incurving rectangular surround; pierced steel hour and minute hands flanked by two winding holes, surrounding dial are gilt metal spandrel ornaments; pediment of hood supported by four stop-fluted columns; base of hood moulded; trunk has arched and scroll-topped door flanked by stop-fluted quarter columns; plinth topped with large moulding; applied arched panel in front flanked by stop-fluted quarter columns; moulded base, ogee bracket feet; brass keyhole escutcheons on both doors; brass hinges.

Movement:
Eight-day brass weight-driven time, strike, and calendar movement measuring 6.65” H x 4.75” W. Plate thickness is .112”-.121” and clearance between front and back plates is 2.4”. Clock has an anchor-recoil escapement regulated by a seconds beat pendulum. A rack-and-snail strike sounds the hours on a 4.3” diameter cast bell. The bell appears to be a replacement.

Four brass pillars are riveted into the back plate and pinned at the front plate. The movement is fastened to the seat board by steel fasteners threaded into the bottom pillars of the movement. The brass time and strike barrels are grooved for the weight cords and are fastened to the main wheels by slip washers. All time and strike train wheels have four-arm crossings. The time second wheel has a tapered steel arbor. All other wheel arbors are straight. The round steel crutch-rod has a closed-end fork. The pendulum bridge base is rectangular shape. It is screwed to the back plate with two screws and two locator pins. The bell stand is screwed to the outside of the back plate and passes under the pendulum bridge. The conventional motion work is uncrossed.

The dial mounts directly to the movement (no false plate) via four dial pillars and pins. The weight pulleys are solid brass. The pendulum rod is brass. The bob is cast lead with a brass face. The weights are cylindrical cast iron inside a brass shell. They are both 2.4” diameter and 7.75” long.

Construction:
Hood: The tall inner sides are screwed from inside to the overlapping single board upper outer sides and double through-tenoned and pegged to the base side rails. The outer sides are blind-dovetailed to the tympanum and half-blind dovetailed to the upper back rail. The single board top is nailed from above to the upper outer sides and upper back rail.

The side rails of the hood’s bottom frame are tenoned into its front rail. The side rails of the interior face frame are lap-joined to its lower and upper rail (the bottom of which is semi-circular). The inside edge of the face frame has a scratch bead. The face frame is joined to the tall inner sides with a series of butt-joined chamfered corner glue blocks and nailed from the back to the edge of the base frame.

Arched rectangular windows in each of the inner sides are rabbeted on the inside. Glass is secured in the rabbets with glaze.

The applied carving on the tympanum face is glued in place as are the mitered moldings on the face of the broken pediment and sides. The carved rosettes are screwed in place from the back. The mitered molding on the lower edge of the tympanum is glued and nailed in place. The plinths for the turned and carved ball and flame side finials are glued in place and the pediment has been augmented with applied molding to form the central plinth for the carved phoenix cartouche. The four stop fluted columns with turned capitals and square bases are probably tenoned into the underside of the tympanum and upper face of the base frame.
The rails of the hood door are through tenoned into the stiles with a scratch bead on the inner front facing edge and a rabbet on the interior edge. Glass is secured in the rabbet with glaze. Brass hinges are inset in the doors stile and surface mounted on the door frame.

Trunk: The back of the trunk and base is nailed into rabbets in the sides reinforced on the inside of the case by a series of closely spaced chamfered corner glue blocks. Original longer blocks alternate with shorter blocks which may also be original. Two of the longer blocks are additionally screwed to the back. A batten is nailed between the sides midway up the back to help secure the back into the rabbets.

The trunk rails are tenoned into the stiles. Stop-fluted corner columns with turned capitals fit between and are glued to the stile and the side and are backed by an “L” shaped full height glue block. The sides extend 5 ½” above the shoulder molding to support the saddle board, above which they are notched to provide a backstop for the saddle board. Upper hood guides are screwed to the sides 1” above the shoulder molding. Hood flankers are nailed to the edges of the back and to the edge of the extended sides.

The mitered shoulder molding is glued to the upper rail, nailed to the proper left side and screwed from the inside to the proper right side. The waist molding is glued to the sides and lower rail of the trunk and sides and lower rail of the base. The single board door with shaped top has an integral overlapping bead edge. Its brass inset hinges and pierced brass escutcheon appear original.

Base: The rails of the front frame of the base are tenoned (probably) into the stiles. A full width block is glued to the front of the trunk bottom rail and stiles joining them to the upper rail of the base front frame. The block is miter joined at each end with a block that is in turn glued to the trunk side and base side, filling the gap between them and extending to the back. It is also glued to the underside of the waist molding. The bottom rail of the base front frame rests on the base bottom and is nailed to it from below. All of these joints are reinforced with a series of closely spaced chamfered glue blocks. A modern full width glue block is nailed from the back to the blocks securing the front rail to the bottom.

Like the trunk, single chamfered full length glue blocks join the base’s sides and stiles, these joints also are reinforced with closely spaced chamfered glue blocks. Stop-fluted columns with turned capitals are glued to the edges of the sides and stiles and into notches in the full length glue blocks. The square bases below the turned capitals extend through the base bottom and are probably nailed to it.

Chamfered glue blocks on the back side of the base upper rail and stiles overlap the edge and appear to have served to support the central panel in addition to reinforcing the joining of the rail and stiles to the primary glue blocks. Mahogany 3/8” strips have been glued on the inside edge of the stiles to compensate for shrinkage of the matchbook figured mahogany central panel which was originally glued to the base stiles and rails and probably to glue blocks as noted previously.

The base sides and the back are/were nailed to the bottom. Additional back boards added to the side of the back in the base section are nailed into rabbets in the base sides and to the bottom. The ogee bracket feet and center drop are glued to the base molding which is in turn nailed to the bottom. The front feet are mitered. The rear brackets on the rear feet are replaced. The vertical quarter round corner block on the proper right foot is original, those on the other feet are replaced. The front section of the bottom is original, the back section replaced. Pads on the feet have been replaced.

Primary wood is mahogany, with secondary wood of chestnut, white cedar, white pine, tulip poplar, walnut bracing members works rest on a yellow pine block.
Label Text“Broken scroll” pediments became popular on clocks and other case furniture during the mid-18th century and continued, incorporating ornamental changes in taste and fashion, well into the 19th century. This example includes carved naturalistic ornament in the rococo style, popular during the second half of the 18th century. Elaborate carving like this might be completed by specialist carvers working either as contractors or as employees of cabinetshops. Philadelphia carvers produced some of the most elaborate and sinuous rococo carving in America.

The Philadelphia clockmaker, Edward Duffield, member of the American Philosophical Society and good friend of Benjamin Franklin’s, included a moon phase sphere in the arch of the pediment. Painted silver on one side and black on the other, the sphere mimics the phases of the moon as it slowly rotates. Below the sphere is a lunar date calendar wheel and a strike/silent (S-N) lever. The date of the month appears in the square aperture just below the center of the dial.
InscribedCleaning dates on inside of back plate: "William Reeves cleand 1783", "Brearly 1807", "Samuel Norton (cleand or Phila,?) 1798", "July 30, 1798".

Cleaning dates on outside of front plate: "William Reeves 1783", "Samuel Norton Cleand July 30, 1798", "Brearly Nov. 1807(?)"

Cleaning date on inside of front plate: "Adolph Yuncker cleaned April 3, 1888".

Cleaning inscription inscribed on back of dial plate
(at bottom):"Adolph Yuncker/ Trenton Cleaned April 19 1880/ April 10 1884/ Aldoph Yuncker Cld April 3 1888"
(on proper right side): illegible...B October 30 1801"

Cleaning inscription inscribed on front of front plate: FRANCIS M SHIREY 1951/ ....PO MATHEWS COUNTY VA"
MarkingsInscribed: "E. Duffield Philada." on lower portion of dial
ProvenanceEx. Coll. Howard Reifsnyder

Exhibition(s)