Clocks · Tall case clock
Tall Case Clock by Silas Merriman
- Maker / attribution
- Silas Merriman (maker)
- Date
- 1794
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- United States
- Place
- New Haven
- Object type
- Tall case clock
- Materials / technique
- pine (primary); yellow poplar (molding at top of waist, supports for saddle board, dial mat)
- Dimensions
- approx.: 90 × 20 × 10 in. (228.6 × 50.8 × 25.4 cm)
- Holding institution
- Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
- Accession / object no.
- 2021.4.1
- Credit line
- Gift of the Estate of Grant H. Griswold, Class of 1957
- 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 2021.4.1), this is a tall case clock by Silas Merriman, made in New Haven, United States, dated 1794. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: pine (primary); yellow poplar (molding at top of waist, supports for saddle board, dial mat). Recorded dimensions: approx.: 90 × 20 × 10 in. (228.6 × 50.8 × 25.4 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
Published references — Yale University Art Gallery
"Selected Acquisitions," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2020–21), 148, ill.
Inscriptions & marks
" Silas Merriman ["n" elevated] / NEW HAVEN / 1794," engraved, on applied disk in arch
Provenance
Nathan Liverant and Son, Colchester, Conn., ca. 1980 –-1985. CRN Auctions, Inc., Cambridge, Mass, ca. 1985; sold to David A. Schorsch, Inc., Greenwich, Conn.; sold to a private collection; sold to David A. Schorsch American Antiques, Inc., Woodbury, Conn., April 1998; sold to Grant H. Griswold, Raphine, Va.; transferred to Grant H. Griswold Revocable Trust, April 2008; sold to Josephine B. Griswold Revocable Trust, 2020; gift 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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