Images(2)

Tall case clock

Dateca.1830

Artist/Maker Jonas Miller (1794 - 1873)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County

MediumTulip poplar, iron, glass, brass, and paint

DimensionsOH: 97"; OW: 20 1/2"; OD: 12"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1972.2000.7,A&B

DescriptionAppearance: Tall case clock with a broken scroll pediment terminating in two pinwheel rosettes; three baluster shaped finials across the top of hood; arched glazed hood door flanked by columns, two at the front and two at the rear, each with a ring turned about three quarters of the way up the column; round lunettes on either side of hood; broad cove mid moldings at top and bottom of trunk; trunk door rectangular with double arched top; fluted quarter columns terminating in turned capitals and bases on both the trunk and base of clock case; ogee base molding and slightly out flaring straight bracket feet with incurving spurs.

Dial appearance:
17 ½” H x 12”W x 0.070” thick, single piece, white painted, iron arched dial. Arabic hour numerals each separated by 5 tick marks at outer edge of chapter ring. Arabic minutes at 15-30-45-60. Arched date aperture with rounded ends below center. Painted conch shell with two mussel and one scallop shell sitting on seaweed type foliage in arch. Floral motifs and geometric banding at four spandrels.

Movement description:
Thirty hour brass time, strike, and calendar weight driven movement measuring 5 7/8” H x 4 9/16” W. Plate thickness is 0.100” and clearance between front and back plates is 2.05”. Clock has an anchor-recoil escapement regulated by a seconds beat pendulum. A rack-and-snail strike sounds the hours on a 4.9” diameter cast bell.

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 seat board screws that are threaded into the bottom pillars. All time and strike train wheels have four-arm crossings. The time main wheel is 0.150” thick. The strike mainwheel is 0.125” thick. The conventional motion work is uncrossed. The rectangular steel crutch-rod has a closed-end fork. The pendulum bridge base is a butterfly shape. It is fastened to the back plate with two screws. The bell stand is screwed to the outside of the back plate on the right of the pendulum bridge.

There is a standard cast-brass pulley with riveted steel stirrup. The thirty hour movement is powered by a single weight and an endless chain.

Construction: On the hood, the lower side panels are dovetailed to the top with wedged dovetails and butt joined and pegged from the underside to the side boards of a three board bottom frame in which the side rails are tenoned and double pegged into a front rail. A 1” board is nailed to the back of the front rail. A mitered shaped molding is glued and pegged to the outer edges of the bottom frame forming a rabbet at the bottom which overlaps the top edge of the trunk. The front edges of the lower side panels are rabbeted to receive the door.

The tympanum is dovetailed to the upper side panels which are in turn glued and pegged to the upper portion of the lower side panels. The scrolled cornice molding is glued and pegged to the tympanum and mitered side cornice moldings are glued and pegged to the upper side panels. Square plinths, glued and possibly nailed at the mitered molding corners, support baluster shaped finials as does the central plinth of the tympanum. Each rosette consists of two separate chip-carved disks that are attached to the terminal of each scroll with a round-headed wooden pin. A half-round molding is glued and pegged to the lower edge of the tympanum and lower edge of the upper side panels.

The rails of the laminated inner door frame are tenoned and pinned to its stiles. The door frame is pegged to the additional 1” board at the back of the bottom frame’s front rail from the underside and to the lower side panels. The four turned columns are tenoned to the upper side of the bottom frame and the under edge of the upper side panels.

The rails of the glazed door are through-tenoned and pegged to the stiles and the upper rail at the start of the curve is additionally tenoned or tongue and groove joined to align the edge of the top of the stile with the curved rail. The iron off-set plate hinges are screwed to the top and bottom of the inside stile.

On the trunk, the sides are butt joined and pegged to the edge of the back and glued and pegged to the corner posts which are in turn glued to the stiles. The rails are tenoned and pegged to the stiles. The mitered upper cove molding is glued and pegged to the sides, corner posts, stiles and rails, as is the upper edge of the base upper cove molding. Grooves have been cut 5 ½” from the top of the sides to allow the hood to slide into place. Boards to widen the back behind the hood have been notched around the sides and glued to the edge of the sides and back above the grooves.

Quarter round fluted columns and capitals are carved in the corner posts beside the door. The door, with canted overlapping edges, is joined to the stile with original brass barrel hinges. The key escutcheon appears to be original and the lock is probably original.

On the base, boards have been glued to the edges of the back to widen it. An interior three sided frame with sides tenoned and pegged to a front is nailed from the underside to the bottom of the trunk stiles and sides. The trunk sides are butt joined and pegged to the back and pegged to the inner frame side rails. The corner posts are glued and pegged to the edge of the trunk sides and glued to the edges of the front. The lower edge of the waist cove molding is pegged to the sides, corner posts and front panel. The back, sides, corner posts and front panel are pegged and nailed to the bottom The corner posts are carved with quarter rounds matching those of the trunk.

Front corner posts extend to the floor and in the back, sides and back are relieved to provide weight supporting feet. Ogee bracket feet are glued and pegged to the support feet, mitered in the front and side facing in the rear.

An mitered ogee molding is glued and pegged to the sides, corner posts and front panel, directly above the ogee feet.

The case is entirely made of tulip poplar with painted ornament.
Label TextThe imaginative grain painting of this tall clock’s case illustrates a whimsical decorative option available for furniture made from inexpensive, visually bland woods like pine and tulip poplar. While the rococo-style case might have been considered out of date in urban areas around 1830, the middle-class rural consumers in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, would have appreciated the fashionable “Fancy” decoration.

Although the maker of the clock case remains unidentified, the 30-hour brass and iron movement bears the letters “IM” cut into the back edge of the seat board. Jonas Miller, a son of clockmaker Peter Miller, worked as a clockmaker in the village of Lynnville in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

Markings"IM" is cut into the back edge of the seatboard.

Seat board has applied paper repair label “M. G. REIST/ "The Clock Man"/ 209 CECIL AVENUE/ WEST LAWN PA 19609 / DIAL 215-6781564/ Cleaned and [Repaired crossed out]/ Date 1/6/70”
ProvenanceProbably William Hoffman, New Tripoli, Penn.; to his daughter, Lydia Kern Hoffman, New Tripoli, Penn.; Willoby Hoffman, New Tripoli, Penn.; William H. Hoffman, New Tripoli, Penn.; Mark W. Hoffman, New Tripoli, Pa.; Clarence J. Deisher, Kutztown, Pa.

Exhibition(s)