Shelf Clock, 1850s
date: label: date made
content: 1850-1860
name: label: maker
content: Litchfield Manufacturing Co.
notes: label: Description
content: This small clock from the early 1850s is unsigned, but its movement is likely from a Connecticut clock factory and its case is likely a product of the Litchfield Manufacturing Co., Litchfield, Conn. The Litchfield firm was America’s first paper-mâché factory, founded by English immigrants in 1851 and eventually employing about 50 men and women. The firm used a patented British process for mother-of-pearl inlay to decorate an array of goods in addition to clock cases, including tables, card cases, fire screens, boxes, vases and ornamental hinges and clasps. The Litchfield firm failed after a merger in the mid-1850s that bankrupted its major supporter, showman P.T. Barnum.
label: Description
content: This clock’s base is made of wood, the body is made of black papier-mâché, with mother-of-pearl inlay and painted images on front and gilt edge paint. The white enamel dial features Roman numerals. The brass movement has steel mainsprings, and the entire clock is covered with glass dome.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: DeVoe, Shirley Spaulding. "The Litchfield Manufacturing Company, makers of
label: Description
content: japanned papier mache." <i>Antiques,</i> August 1960, 150-153.
label: Description
content: Palmer, Brooks in “The Litchfield Manufacturing Company,” <i>American Antiques
label: Description
content: Journal,</i> November 1949, 26-28.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, Litchfield
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: James Arthur Collection, New York University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1984.0416.095
label: catalog number
content: 1984.0416.095
label: accession number
content: 1984.0416
objectType: label: Object Name
content: table clock
label: Object Name
content: clock
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 1/4 in x 8 1/4 in x 5 1/2 in; 28.575 cm x 20.955 cm x 13.97 cm
label: Measurements
content: face: 3 1/4 in; 8.255 cm
label: Measurements
content: clock w/o dome and base: 20.6502 cm x 15.24 cm; 8 1/8 in x 6 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 1/4 in x 8 1/16 in x 5 11/16 in; 28.575 cm x 20.47875 cm x 14.44625 cm