Fine Chippendale Cherry and Pine Tall-Case Clock with Silvered Dial,...

Fine Chippendale Cherry and Pine Tall-Case Clock with Silvered Dial,
Lewis Curtis (1774-1845), Farmington, Connecticut, c. 1800.

The case raised on four splayed ogee bracket feet continuing to spurred and shaped returns at front corners, which are reinforced with square glue blocks, and at sides, which join triangular bracket feet supporting the rear of base, constructed of butted and nailed panels embellished on three sides with applied thumb-molded fascia above coved molding, the top edge supporting deep coved and beaded molding that frames the bottom of waist section, a straight and narrow case containing thumb-molded, single-board door flanked by recessed three-quarter-engaged fluted columns mounted under cast brass Doric capitals conforming to blocked corners above, the waist recessed under coved and beaded molding applied to top of front and side boards, below projecting top of a rectangular pine backboard extending from base molding to roof of the hood and rabbeted to join two shorter extensions of the side panels forming a ledge to support movement.

Removable hood rests on top of deep cove molding applied to the top of waist section, and is surmounted by a pediment of fretwork scrolls between three high fluted plinths, drilled to receive threaded cast brass ball finials, above a cut-out pagoda arch that fills the tympanum and conforms to the deep cornice molding above round-arched glazed door, which is flanked by two free-standing fluted colonettes mounted with cast brass Corinthian capitals and ogee bases, the door is hinged to thumb-molded and glazed side panels, all mounted on a deep, hollow-molded base.

Eight-day weight-driven movement with striking bell is mounted behind tablet-form dial of silvered brass and signed "L Curtis / Farmington" across chapter ring surrounded by engraved Roman numerals I-VII, inside a ring marking seconds in Arabic numerals, this supplemented by a recessed seconds dial at top of chapter ring, as well as a calendar wheel at the bottom, all below an arched tablet framing dial painted with stars and bright moon faces.

Includes two weights, pendulum, winding key, and two door keys, including finial, 53cm wide, 27cm deep, 231cm high (21 1/2in wide, 11in deep, 91 1/2in high).
Provenance
The collection of Eric van Rooy.
Nathan Liverant & Son, Colchester, Connecticut, 5 October 2015.

Literature
In the early 1790s, Curtis served as an apprentice to Daniel Burnap (1759-1838) of East Windsor, Connecticut, alongside another young clockmaker, Daniel Kellogg (1766-1855). Marked similarities are observed on clocks they made around the turn of the century, particularly with regard to imported brass ornaments and carved details. See Penrose R. Hoopes, Connecticut Clockmakers of the Eighteenth Century (Hartford: Edwin Valentine Mitchell, 1930), and Shop Records of Daniel Burnap, Clockmaker (Hartford: Connecticut Historical Society, 1958). For a similar clock by Kellogg bearing identical brass Corinthian capitals, see New London County Furniture, 1640-1840 (New London: Lyman Allyn Museum, 1974), cat. no. 45.

Note
Curtis worked in Farmington for less than a decade (from 1795 to 1803), but his clock shop achieved local landmark status by 1906, when Arthur L. Brandegee and Eddy R. Smith featured the building in Farmington, Connecticut, The Village of Beautiful Homes. Although moved three times, it survives today as "The Little Red Clock Shop" on the grounds of the Farmington Country Club. Curtis moved many times, himself, and much farther afield. He left Connecticut for Burlington, Vermont, advertising as a clockmaker and silversmith there from 1803 until about 1820, when he relocated to Saint Charles, Missouri. He died nearly two decades later in Hazel Green, Wisconsin.