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Eli Terry & Sons Mahogany Pillar & Scroll Clock, c. 1825 — view 1 of 4
View 1 of 4 · Image: Devin Moisan Auctioneers, Inc. / LiveAuctioneers · original image source (opens another website in a new tab)

Clocks · Clock

Eli Terry & Sons Mahogany Pillar & Scroll Clock, c. 1825

DocumentedDocumented from an auction catalogue; attribution as stated by the auction house.
Maker / attribution
Unrecorded in source
Date
c. 1825
Country of origin
Unrecorded in source
Object type
Clock
Materials / technique
mahogany
Dimensions
31.25 x 17.375 x 4.5 in
Lot
Item 198692113
Credit line
Auction lot record: lot 290, 2025 Winter Antiques Auction - Session I, Devin Moisan Auctioneers, Inc. (2025), via LiveAuctioneers
Catalogue title (original)
Eli Terry & Sons Mahogany Pillar & Scroll Clock (English)

View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction

Record summary

Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 198692113), this is a clock, dated c. 1825. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany. Recorded dimensions: 31.25 x 17.375 x 4.5 in. The record is illustrated with 4 photographs.

Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.

Catalogue description

Lot description — Devin Moisan Auctioneers, Inc.

Eli Terry & Sons Mahogany and Eglomise Pillar and Scroll Shelf Clock, Plymouth, Connecticut, Circa 1825. Weight driven wooden works, the white clock face painted with pink and green floral sprandrels within gilt borders, the divided glass door reverse painted with a large country house and outbuilding in a landscape, within free-standing columns and beneath a scroll crest surmounted by three brass urn finials, affixed on the interior with a paper label printed "PATENT CLOCKS/ INVENTED BY/ ELI TERRY,/ MADE AND SOLD/ AT/ PLYMOUTH/ CONNECTICUT,/ BY/ E. TERRY & SONS/ WARRANTED IF WELL USED," flanked on each side by "DIRECTIONS" for running the clock. H: 31.25 in., W: 17.375 in., D: 4.5 in.

Historical context

Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)

Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.

The age of the deadbeat escapement, compensated pendulums and observatory regulators. Domestic clocks spread through the middle classes: English longcase and bracket clocks, French gilt-bronze mantel clocks, Viennese Biedermeier wall clocks, Black Forest painted-shield clocks, and the first American shelf clocks.

Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology

Atlas type guide

Domestic clocks

A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.

Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.

What to look for

  • How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
  • The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
  • Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
  • The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
  • Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.

Dating clues

  • Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
  • Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
  • Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.

General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.

Read next:Verge escapementAnchor (recoil) escapementFoliot

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