Clocks · Tall case clock
Tall Case Clock by Benjamin Rittenhouse
- Maker / attribution
- Benjamin Rittenhouse (maker)
- Date
- 1765–75
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- United States
- Place
- Worcester
- Object type
- Tall case clock
- Materials / technique
- american black walnut (primary) southeastern white cedar (top of hood); yellow-poplar (back board); white oak (bottom board); white pine (glue block on left rear foot
- Dimensions
- 84 3/4 × 18 3/8 × 10 7/8 in. (215.3 × 46.7 × 27.7 cm) other (Dial): 10 9/16 × 10 9/16 in. (26.8 × 26.8 cm) other (Movement): 6 1/4 × 4 1/2 × 2 1/2 in. (15.9 × 11.5 × 6.4 cm) framed (Frame): 11 7/8 × 10 1/8 in. (30.2 × 25.7 cm) other (Lower case): 61 5/16 × 16 5/8 × 10 5/8 in. (155.7 × 42.2 × 27 cm) other (Frame, lower case): 11 7/8 × 7 3/4 in. (30.2 × 19.7 cm)
- Holding institution
- Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
- Accession / object no.
- 1950.64.1
- Credit line
- Bequest of Walter B. Sheppard, B.A. 1887
- Catalogue title (original)
- Tall Case Clock (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (object number 1950.64.1), this is a tall case clock by Benjamin Rittenhouse, made in Worcester, United States, dated 1765–75. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: american black walnut (primary) southeastern white cedar (top of hood); yellow-poplar (back board); white oak (bottom board); white pine (glue block on left rear foot. Recorded dimensions: 84 3/4 × 18 3/8 × 10 7/8 in. (215.3 × 46.7 × 27.7 cm) other (Dial): 10 9/16 × 10 9/16 in. (26.8 × 26.8 cm) other (Movement): 6 1/4 × 4 1/2 × 2 1/2 in. (15.9 × 11.5 × 6.4 cm) framed (Frame): 11 7/8 × 10 1/8 in. (30.2 × 25.7 cm) other (Lower case): 61 5/16 × 16 5/8 × 10 5/8 in. (155.7 × 42.2 × 27 cm) other (Frame, lower case): 11 7/8 × 7 3/4 in. (30.2 × 19.7 cm). The record is illustrated with 6 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
Catalogue description — Yale University Art Gallery
American clocks made before 1750 are extremely rare. Only in the mid-eighteenth century did tall case clocks begin to be widely owned by wealthy colonists. Benjamin Rittenhouse, brother of the inventor and instrument-maker David Rittenhouse, set up shop in Worcester, Pennsylvania, sometime after 1761 and lived there until the early 1800s.
Published references — Yale University Art Gallery
Edwin A. Battison and Patricia E. Kane, The American Clock, 1725–1865: The Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1973), 122–125, no. 26, ill.
Inscriptions & marks
"B. Rittenhouse; Worcester.," engraved, on dial
Provenance
Walter B. Sheppard, Denver; bequest in 1950 to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
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
Longcase (tall-case or grandfather) clocks
The longcase clock was born from two seventeenth-century innovations: Christiaan Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) and the anchor escapement (c. 1670). A long seconds pendulum, nearly a metre long, swings with a small arc, and enclosing it together with the driving weights in a tall wooden case protected the mechanism and created a new piece of furniture. London makers such as Ahasuerus Fromanteel, Thomas Tompion and Joseph Knibb set the pattern.
By the eighteenth century longcase clocks were made throughout Britain, the Netherlands, Scandinavia (the Swedish Mora clock), France (the Comtoise from the Franche-Comté), Germany and colonial America. Eight-day movements with two weights became standard in better clocks; thirty-hour clocks with one weight and a rope or chain were cheaper alternatives.
What to look for
- Winding holes in the dial: two (eight-day, going and striking) or none (thirty-hour, pulled up by a chain).
- Brass dials with applied chapter rings (earlier) versus painted iron 'white' dials (after c. 1770 in Britain).
- Moon-phase arches, date apertures, seconds dials and maker's name on the dial.
- Case woods and style: ebonised, walnut marquetry, lacquer, oak or mahogany; regional styles from London, Lancashire, Scotland or America.
- Whether the movement and dial match the case — 'marriages' are common.
Dating clues
- Square brass dials suggest c. 1670–1720; arched brass dials c. 1715–1790.
- Painted (white) dials were made by Birmingham dial-makers from about 1772.
- Comtoise clocks with repoussé pendulums are mostly nineteenth century.
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:Anchor (recoil) escapementDeadbeat escapementAnchor escapement
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