Tall Case Clock
date: label: date made
content: ca 1799
name: label: maker
content: Willard, Simon
notes: label: Description
content: By the end of the eighteenth century when this clock was made, the most common style of domestic clock came to look like a piece of household furniture. A wooden case enclosed the movement, weights and pendulum. Through a glass window, the dial was visible.
label: Description
content: The dial of this clock is signed “Simon Willard,” one of the most prominent clockmakers in the Boston area of his era. With his brother Aaron, he coordinated an extensive network of independent artisans for building clocks. They set up two separate workshops in Roxbury, close to the Boston market and shipping routes, and employed more than a score of workmen. They also attracted to the locale additional independent craftsmen with related skills. More than twenty clockmakers, cabinetmakers, dial painters and gilders worked for the Willards in Roxbury by 1807. To meet customer demand for things with English style and quality, they provided English-made clocks under their signatures, assembled English clock kits and made clocks from English components. They even made clock parts of their own.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Robert C, Cheney, “Roxbury Eight-Day Movements and the English Connection, 1785-1825,” <i>Antiques</i> (April 2000), 606-615.
label: Description
content: Philip Zea and Robert C. Cheney, <i>Clock Making in New England, 1725-1825</i> (Sturbridge, MA: Old Sturbridge Village, 1992).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
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: ME.322431
label: accession number
content: 247826
label: catalog number
content: 322431
objectType: label: Object Name
content: case clock
label: Object Name
content: clock, tall case
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 94 1/4 in x 20 in x 10 in; 239.395 cm x 50.8 cm x 25.4 cm
label: Measurements
content: pendulum: 43 1/2 in x 4 3/4 in x 1/2 in; 110.49 cm x 12.065 cm x 1.27 cm
label: Measurements
content: winding crank: 4 1/2 in x 3 in x 19/32 in; 11.43 cm x 7.62 cm x 1.524 cm
label: Measurements
content: case key: 1 3/4 in x 3/4 in x 3/16 in; 4.445 cm x 1.905 cm x .508 cm
label: Measurements
content: hood: 25 1/2 in x 19 in x 9 1/2 in; 64.77 cm x 48.26 cm x 24.13 cm
label: Measurements
content: case: 82 3/4 in x 20 in x 10 in; 210.185 cm x 50.8 cm x 25.4 cm
label: Measurements
content: wood parts to hood: fretwork: 9 in x 6 1/2 in x 3/16 in; 22.86 cm x 16.51 cm x .508 cm
label: Measurements
content: wood parts to hood: chimney: 3 3/16 in x 1 5/16 in x 1 5/16 in; 8.128 cm x 3.302 cm x 3.302 cm
label: Measurements
content: finial #1: 7 in x 3 in; 17.78 cm x 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: finial #2: 6 3/4 in x 3 in; 17.145 cm x 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: finial #3: 7 in x 3 in; 17.78 cm x 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: movement: 16 1/4 in x 14 in x 6 1/2 in; 41.275 cm x 35.56 cm x 16.51 cm
label: Measurements
content: screw #1: 1 1/4 in x 1/4 in; 3.175 cm x .635 cm
label: Measurements
content: screw #2: 1 1/4 in x 1/4 in; 3.175 cm x .635 cm