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Tall Case Clock

Date1760-1780

Maker Thomas Worswick (dial)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumMahogany, tulip poplar, pine, iron, steel, brass, and glass

DimensionsOH: 102"; OW: 21 1/2"; OD: 11 1/2"

Credit LineGift of Mr. Edward T. Lacy

Object number2007-7,A&B

DescriptionAppearance:
Case: Tall case clock with a tympanum featuring a boldly vertical broken scrolled pediment with applied carved rosettes over a shaped board that is arched to correspond to the hood door. The board is decorated with applied interwoven "C scrolls" enhanced with branches and small leaves and leading to a single central leaf. On the top are three "flame" finials on fluted plinths. The tympanum rests on four fluted columns. Between the columns on each side of the hood is a glazed window shaped to echo the hood's glazed front door. The trunk has ogee moldings above and below and fluted quarter columns on the front corners. The trunk door has a top arch that echoes the hood door. The base has an applied shaped panel with extended corners. Like the trunk, it has fluted quarter columns on the front corners. The base rests on ogee bracket feet.

Dial:
One piece arched brass dial 12 7/8” W x 18 1/8” H x 0.060” thick. Silvered chapter ring with Roman hour numerals and Arabic minute numerals around a silvered center engraved with foliate rococo scrolls containing a second dial with Arabic numerals at 12 o'clock and a square date aperture at 6 o'clock and two winding holes, a third later winding hole pierces the chapter ring below III; foliate scrolled hour and minute hands; applied cast crown and cherub spandrel ornaments; arch contains maker's name "THOMAS WORSWICK LANCASTER" in block letters on an attached silvered half ring above a rocking ship on a seascape background.

Movement description:
Eight-day brass time, strike, and calendar weight-driven movement measuring 6 5/8” H x 5.125” W. Plate thickness is 0.135” and clearance between front and back plates is 2.4”. A quarter hour chime on 8 bells was later added. The musical train is 6 1/8” H x 3 1/8” W, has a 0.160” plate thickness, and 2.4” separation between plates. It is stamped on the front plate "GROPENGIESSER/PHILADA/1884." The musical train is fastened to clock movement via horizontal brass straps with two screws per strap. Clock has an anchor-recoil escapement regulated by a seconds beat pendulum. A rack-and-snail strike sounds the hours on a 4.6” 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 hooks that hook over the bottom movement pillars and are fastened under the seat board by nuts. All time and strike train wheels have four-arm crossings. The conventional motion work has four-arm crossings, with the exception of the hour wheel which is uncrossed. The round steel crutch-rod has a closed-end fork. The pendulum bridge base is a rectangular in shape with rounded bottom right and left corners. It is fastened to the back plate with two screws and upper left and lower right locator pins. The bell stand is screwed to the outside of the back plate.

There are standard cast-brass pulleys with riveted stirrups. The overall length of the pendulum is 43.25”. The pendulum rod is steel. The bob is lead with a brass face. It is 5.2” diameter and 0.80” thick at its center. The weights are cylindrical shells with flat bases and rounded tops. They are both 2.8” diameter and 6 5/8” long.

Construction:
On the hood, the sides are nailed from the inside to the overlapping upper side panels. The top is nailed from above to the sides. The sides are double through-tenoned to the side rails of the bottom frame which in turn are tenoned into the frame’s front rail. The upper side panels are probably joined to the tympanum with blind dovetails. The spacer is nailed (or screwed) at the center to the tympanum from the upper arched area and nailed from the front to the leading edges of the sides. Moldings on the broken scrolled pediment are glued and screwed to it from the back and are miter joined to those that are glued and screwed to the upper edge of the side panels. Carved rosettes are glued to the terminals of the central moldings. Interwoven C scrolls, branches and leaves are glued to the face of the pediment. Fluted plinths for the carved flame finials are glued to the top surface of the pediment moldings at the corners, and a block is inset and glued behind the integral central plinth of the pediment. Finials are post and hole joined to the plinths. A mitered molding is glued to the lower edge of the tympanum. A mitered cove molding is glued and nailed to the front and side edges of the base frame.

The upper center section of the mitered and arched inner frame rests in a notch in the front edge of the top and extends above the top where it is nailed to the spacer. The frame stiles are face nailed into rabbets in the leading edge of the hood sides as are the outer mitered corners of the frame’s bottom rail. (A mahogany strip has been nailed over the rabbeted area on the proper left side probably to mask the need to move the door hinge.) A slot has been cut in the bottom rail to accommodate a screw in the door as part of a now missing locking mechanism.

The front fluted columns and integral turned capitals are, at the top, pinned or pegged to the underside of the tympanum and at the bottom nailed to the bottom frame from the underside. At the back, the square section of the upper capitols are screwed from the inside to the hood sides, and at the bottom The proper right column is pinned or pegged to the bottom frame as the proper left column probably originally was but is now screwed to the hood side.

The rails of the door are through-tenoned into the stiles. Modern angle irons have been inset at each of the joints. An integral bead edge on the front facing edge of the door frame forms a rabbet for the glazed door and similarly for the windows in both sides of the hood. Putty is used to secure the glass in place.
The full length tulip poplar backboard has added flankers at the hood and base. The upper flankers are nailed to the edges of the back and the lower flankers are nailed into rabbets in the base sides, glued to the edges of the back and face nailed, as is the back, to the edge of the base bottom. The proper left trunk side extends 2” into the hood area where a second board is nailed to it on the inside to support the seat board. The proper left side is dadoed (flush with the upper molding which supports the hood) to provide a guide for battens that are nailed to the inside of the bottom rail of the hood. On the proper right, the side extends only ¾” into the hood and is rabbeted and glued to a block that in turn is nailed to the proper right support for the seat board and on the underside forms a dado to guide the bottom rail of the hood.

The upper cove molding is face nailed to the sides and upper rail and each section is nailed with one pocket nail from the upper side of the molding. The mitered corners are nailed to each other. The trunk upper and lower rails are tenoned into the stiles. Quarter round fluted columns with glued turned capitols are glued to the edges of the stiles and sides. Boards 1”x 2” (extending the length of the trunk) are nailed to the inner sides and glued to the stiles and fluted columns. The trunk door is figured mahogany with integral beaded edge that overlaps the door frame on the leading edge and bottom. Veneer has been added to the proper left edge of the door. Brass door hinges (replacements) are mortised into the edge of the door and stile. An iron bolt on the inside of the trunk upper rail is old but probably not original to the clock.

The waist molding is face nailed to the trunk sides, stiles, and lower rail (and to modern blocks glued and nailed to the lower rail,) all of which extend into the base. The base sides are dovetailed to the bottom. The front is comprised of a mahogany tenoned frame to which the figured and shaped mahogany panel is glued and face nailed. The upper rail of the frame is nailed and glued to modern blocks that are in turn nailed and glued to the lower edge of the trunk lower rail. The frame stiles are similarly joined to the sides. The bottom frame rail is similarly joined to the bottom.
The quarter round fluted columns with glued turned capitols are nailed glued to the base sides and stiles.
The mitered base molding is face nailed to the sides and the lower rail and stiles of the front frame. Vertical quarter round support feet are glued in the corners under the base sides and bottom. They are supported with shaped glue blocks that are in turn glued to the sides, front frame and bottom of the base. The decorative ogee bracket feet are glued to the structural feet and glue blocks and nailed from below to the bottom molding. They are mitered in the front, and back feet are butt joined to rear facing triangular blocks. All ogee bracket feet are pieced about 1 1/8” from the bottom and the bottom board is replaced. Almost all glue blocks behind the feet must have been off to replace the bottom board.
Label TextThe rococo style was very popular in Philadelphia during the second half of the 18th century. Specialist carvers ornamented furniture including clock cases with exuberantly carved naturalistic rococo motifs such as those found above the hood door on this clock. The clockmaker or his engraver also decorated the center of the clock dial with elegant rococo scrolls. The clock case’s broken scroll pediment with its carved rosettes was a fashionable form found on mid-to-late 18th-century Philadelphia case pieces, including clocks and high chests as well as many British clocks of the same period.

American consumers often obtained their clocks locally. Some, however, purchased imported British clock movements and had local cabinetmakers construct the cases. While at first glance this clock looks like it falls into that category, with a Philadelphia case and an English dial, its assembly is a bit more complicated than that. Thomas Worswick of Lancashire, England, was a clockmaker known for producing clocks for the export market. However, some of this clock’s components suggest it was put together using pre-cast German clock parts (elements like the pillars holding the movement’s plates together were styled differently in Germany than England). Some Pennsylvania-German clockmakers did use German rather than English parts. A Pennsylvania clockmaker appears to have combined imported German clock parts with an English dial. Americans often preferred (and paid more for) English goods, so perhaps this maker was hoping to induce his customer to pay more for this clock by placing an English maker’s name on the dial.
Markings"Thomas Worswick - Lancaster" on dial plate.
"Come I Will Not" engraved on the front plate of the clock movement.
The movement has an added musical or chiming train that is stamped on the front “GROPENGIESSER/PHILADA/1884”.

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