Images(5)

Tall case clock

Date1800

Artist/Maker Johannes Spitler

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Shenandoah County

MediumYellow pine; iron, steel, brass, glass and paint

DimensionsOH: 97 3/4"; OW: 20"; OD: 11 3/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1973.2000.3,A&B

DescriptionAppearance: Tall case clock with broken scroll pediment with white painted carved pinwheel rosettes, three gilded ball and spire finials, arched hood door flanked by white turned columns, trunk with white fluted quarter columns and an arched door with a red top painted in white with black and red with a leaping stag over "1800/ J SP NO2", over a floral motif, hearts, a pinwheel, and a bird, base with white fluted quarter columns and a red rectangular panel outlined in black and white with a scalloped top, over ogee bracket feet (partially missing). Base color of Prussian blue, details and motifs in white, red, and black.

Dial:
One piece, white, painted arched metal dial measuring 13 1/8” W x 18 3/4” H. Dial is 0.125” thick. Moon phase in arch with Arabic 5 day increments. Labeled maps of the two hemispheres project into the arch. A brown pitcher with flowers is centered between the hemispheres. Painted floral and leaf spandrels at dial corners. Roman numeral chapter ring with Arabic minutes at 5 minute increments on outer band and Arabic calendar with 3 day increments on inner band. Hands are cast. Minute hand is serpentine. Calendar hand and possible seconds hand are missing. “A42” stenciled in red on back of moon phase. Dial false plate has “A42” stenciled in red at top.

Movement description:
Eight-day brass time, strike, and calendar weight-driven movement measuring 5.6” H x 4.0” W. Plate thickness is 0.106” and clearance between front and back plates is 2.45”. Clock has an anchor-recoil escapement regulated by a seconds beat pendulum. A rack-and-snail strike sounds the hours on a 4.5” diameter cast bell. The front and back plates have ogee-arch cut-outs at the bottom of each plate.

Four polished brass pillars are riveted into the back plate and pinned at the front plate. The movement is fastened to the seat board by steel hooks that hook over the bottom movement pillars and are fastened under the seat board by nuts. All time and strike train wheels and the conventional motion work have four-arm crossings. The round steel crutch-rod has a closed-end fork. The pendulum bridge base is a small butterfly shape. It is fastened to the back plate with two screws. The bell stand is straight and is screwed to the outside of the back plate above the left side of the pendulum bridge. Per previous cataloguer: The movement utilizes very small, ungrooved barrels.

Pulleys are wood with riveted steel stirrups.
The pendulum rod is steel. The pendulum length is adjusted by an brass nut. The bob is cast lead with a brass face.

Construction: On the hood, the side panels of the clock are dovetailed to a single board top with the top board showing the tails. The dial frame consists of an arched top, stiles and bottom rail mortised and tenoned, and further secured with pegs. The front inner edge of the dial frame is thumbnail molded and its rear is rabbeted to receive the dial when the hood is in place. The stiles of the dial frame are set into a rabbet in the sides of the hood. A horizontal board is pegged to the front of the dial frame at its bottom edge creating the base for the hood door. The pediment box consists of a scrolled arched tympanum (scroll board) backed by a spacer board that projects slightly below the tympanum and the side fascias mitered together and secured to the dial frame and hood sides with pegs. The top cove and bottom fillet moldings of the pediment box are pegged and nailed respectively to the side fascias and tympanum. The ends of the scrolled top moldings are shaped to fit the top of solid disks that with the carved rosettes are attached to the front of the tympanum with long pegs. Similar disks and uncarved rosettes are pegged to the rear of the tympanum scrolls. The central finial fits into a hole in the reeded plinth below which is a carved reeded applique glued to the tympanum. The side finials sit in reeded plinths fit in holes in the corners of the pediment. The hood door frame consists of an arched top and bottom rail mortised, through tenoned, and pegged into the stiles. An inner thumbnail molding surrounds the glazed front door and its reverse is rabbeted to receive the glass secured in place with putty. The clock door swings on two wrought iron hinges recessed into the inside of the door and bent over the top and bottom. The upper hinge is screwed and nailed to the door and swivels on the head of the wire nail extending down out of the hood molding. The lower hinge is nailed with wrought head nails to the door and also swivels on a wire nail. A keyhole and recessed iron lock are present The bottom moldings on the hood are mitered together and pegged to the hood sides and the horizontal front board pegged to the front of the dial frame. Two free-standing turned columns are set between the bottom corners of the pediment box and the top corners of the hood base molding with small nails. Small battens are pegged to interior sides of the hood about 2” from the bottom edge of the sides. The hood slides onto the top of the large cove molding on the waist. The back of the hood is rabbeted to fit over the backboard.

On the waist, the one-piece backboard extends the length of the case and is pegged to the rear edges of the waist sides and case bottom board (now missing) as well as from the base sides into the lower side edges of the backboard. Narrow rabbeted extensions are pegged from the sides to the edges of the backboard behind the hood. The door frame consists of an arched top rail, stiles and inverted T shaped bottom rail mortised and tenoned, and further secured with pegs. The sides of the waist extend upward into the hood to support the seatboard on which the clock movement rests and downward into the base where it is pegged to the waist molding, and sides and front of the base. The quarter columns, capitals, and bases along with filler blocks below and above the columns sit in the corner formed by the front edges of the case sides and side edges of the stiles and are pegged to the same. Two horizontal battens are pegged to each of the upper case sides above the cove molding with a gap between them to receive the inner batten of the hood. A thin vertical board is pegged to the front edges of the sides from about 2” above the top of the cove molding to about 1” below it. The cove molding is mitered and pegged to the case sides, the thin board across the front, and to the front of the waist just below where the hood sits. The thumbnail molded, solid waist door is rabbeted to fit within the door frame secured in place with brass hinges. A keyhole is present but the lock is missing.

On the base, the front and sides have two layers of boards. The inner front board is one vertically grained board. The rails and stiles of the outer front board are mortised and tenoned and pegged to the inner board. The quarter column construction on the base is the same as on the waist. The sides and front of the base were pegged the edges of a bottom board (now missing) The bottom of the waist is pegged to the waist molding and inner top of the base. A cove molding is mitered and pegged to the top of the base and bottom of the waist. A small molding below the cove molding is pegged to the base sides and front. The one board-decorative thumbnail-molded panel is pegged to the front of the base. The base cove molding is mitered and pegged to the sides and front of the base. The bracket feet are attached to the bottom edges of the sides and front of the case with later iron screws and horizontally stacked glue blocks (mostly replaced).
Label TextThe Great Wagon Road connected Western Virginia to York, Lancaster, and Philadelphia, providing a route that brought German-American immigrants, goods, and craft traditions to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. As a result, Pennsylvania style and taste exerted a strong influence on Valley-made decorative arts of the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.

This clock's scrolled pediment, hood with an astragal-shaped door and turned colonettes, fluted quarter columns on the trunk, and ogee-bracket feet are common features of rococo clock cases. Pennsylvania cabinetmakers often elaborated this design by adding quarter columns and a shaped panel to the base. The carpenter/joiner who built this clock case was aware of Pennsylvania rococo clock-case design, but the shallow arch of the scrolled pediment and the proportions of the hood, trunk, and base suggest he did not fully understand (or, was uninterested in) classical relationships between these parts.

This clock case was decorated by Johannes Spitler with some of his most lively and meaningful designs. Painted motifs on early German-American furniture had strong symbolic importance within that community, and the significance of certain designs seems to have been as important as their decorative appeal. For example, at the top of the clock's trunk door is a leaping stag (drawn here with the aid of a template), a traditional Germanic motif associated with the tenth son of Jacob, Naphtali. Napthali is mentioned in Genesis 49:21 as ". . .a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words." Below the stag is "1800" (the year the clock case was decorated and probably made), Spitler's initials, and "No 2", denoting this as the second clock case the artist painted. Next, a pair of birds which serve as love tokens, and a level, the Masonic symbol for equality and an indication that the clock's original owner was a Freemason. The large, stylized tulip flower having heart-shaped leaves seems to emanate from a six-pointed star, a Germanic symbol for protection which often appears on chests painted by Spitler. The sequence ends with an amusing template-drawn bird that seems to be reclining under the weight of the designs.
Inscribed"1800/j SP No 2" is painted on the trunk door. "A42" is stenciled in red paint on the back of the dial and the moon dial, and on the false plate, probably by a British maker.
ProvenanceViolet S. Miller, Winchester, Va.

Exhibition(s)