Rhode Island Furniture Archive - Yale University Art Gallery

Photo: Courtesy Skinner, Inc., Boston and Marlborough, Mass. Click the image to enlarge	Tall case clock
	Object number RIF2258
	Maker Casemaker Unknown Clockmaker Edward Spalding, American, 1732–1785
	Dimensions Height: 88 1/4 in. (224.155 cm)
	Date 1760–80
	Current location Unknown
	Geography Made in Providence, Rhode Island (view a map of Rhode Island)
	Medium Mahogany (primary); chestnut (backboard and back of hood); pine (corner blocks and top of hood); yellow poplar (boards surrounding dial)
	Marks "Edw Spalding," engraved on boss in arch
	Inscriptions None
	Provenance Skinner, Inc., Boston and Bolton, Massachusetts (sale held Boston), November 1, 2003, lot 128. Skinner, February 20, 2005, lot 391. Skinner, Boston and Bolton, Massachusetts (sale held Boston), June 8, 2008, lot 38A
	Associated names Skinner, Inc.
	Construction The arched, crown-molded, removable hood is surmounted by two small turned finials, each on a rectangular plinth. It has a single-board, conformingly arched roof, attached with brads. Its arched backboard is attached with brads to the back of the single-piece sides, which have no portals. A single-piece entablature is screwed from within the hood to the sides. Fixed to the sides and front of the entablature are a single-piece architrave above and cornice below. The bottom of the cornice is attached with fasteners in wood-filled holes to the entablature behind. At the front of the hood are fluted colonnettes with turned capitals and bases. The back of the proper right colonnette is imperfectly fluted. The single-piece beaded cove molding below the hood is fixed to the sides of the case with nail pockets. In the waist of the case below is a convex-blocked, shell-carved, arched and thumb-molded single-board door. Into the inner face of the door, near its bottom, is dovetailed a horizontal wood strip. The case back consists of a single long board, flanked, at the base, by two vertical strips. The long board is nailed with brads to rabbets in the single-board sides of the waist. The vertical strips are nailed to blocking within the base. Between the waist and base is a single-piece molding, fixed to the case with fasteners in wood-filled holes. There are multiple vertical chamfered glue blocks at the juncture of case back and sides. The base is plain; there are no feet nor any base molding. Examined by P. E. Kane, J. S. Gordon, June 8, 2008; notes compiled by T. B. Lloyd.
	Bibliography Skinner, Inc., Boston and Bolton, Mass., American Furniture and Decorative Arts, sale cat. (November 1, 2003), 58, lot 128. "Skinner's American Furniture and Decorative Arts," Maine Antique Digest (January 2004): 36–B, ill. Skinner, Inc., Boston and Bolton, Mass., American Furniture and Decorative Arts, sale cat. (February 20, 2005), 99, lot 391, ill. Skinner, Inc., Boston, American Furniture and Decorative Arts, sale cat. (June 8, 2008), 26, lot 38A.