Tall Case Clock, Peter Stretch
date: label: date made
content: 1705-1715
label: date made
content: 1705- 1715
name: label: maker
content: Stretch, Peter
notes: label: Description
content: Peter Stretch, a Quaker immigrant, made the movement of this tall case clock in the first decade of the eighteenth century. Stretch (1670-1746) moved with his wife and four children from Leek, England, to Philadelphia in 1703. Initially focused on building up his own craft business in clocks and instruments, he eventually became an active member of the local Quaker community, an engaged citizen of the city who served on the City Council and a land owner. A respected and talented craftsman, he trained three of his sons—Daniel, Thomas and William—as clockmakers.
label: Description
content: The plain walnut case for this clock was constructed by an unknown craftsman. Stretch made the brass movement, which runs for thirty hours on a single weight and strikes a bell on the hour.
label: Description
content: Its dial features a single hour hand and Stretch’s signature. Although critical technical improvements in the 1660s had permitted the best clocks to keep time to the second, clockmakers at the end of the 17th century were still making some domestic timepieces with only the hour hand. These clocks were usually reliable to the closest quarter hour, rather than to the minute and second.
label: Description
content: See also: Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann III, <i>Stretch: America’s First Family of Clockmakers</i> ([Winterthur, DE]: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc.; [New York, New York]: Hohmann Holdings LLC, 2013.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0489.01
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0489.01
label: accession number
content: 1986.0489
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tall case clock
label: Object Name
content: clock, tall case
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 84 in x 19 in x 10 in; 213.36 cm x 48.26 cm x 25.4 cm
label: Measurements
content: hood: 20 1/4 in x 19 in x 10 in; 51.435 cm x 48.26 cm x 25.4 cm
label: Measurements
content: case: 38 3/4 in x 17 in x 9 1/2 in; 98.425 cm x 43.18 cm x 24.13 cm
label: Measurements
content: movement: 13 1/2 in x 11 1/4 in x 3 1/2 in; 34.29 cm x 28.575 cm x 8.89 cm
label: Measurements
content: pendulum: 42 1/4 in x 4 1/2 in x 1/2 in; 107.315 cm x 11.43 cm x 1.27 cm
label: Measurements
content: weight: 7 1/2 in x 3 in; 19.05 cm x 7.62 cm