Rhode Island Furniture Archive - Yale University Art Gallery

Photo: Courtesy Christie's, New York Click the image to enlarge	Tall case clock
	Object number RIF2304
	Maker Clockmaker Seril Dodge, American, 1759–1802 Casemaker Unknown
	Dimensions 95 � 21 1/2 � 11 1/2 in. (241.301 � 54.61 � 29.21 cm)
	Date 1780–1800
	Current location Private Collection
	Geography Made in Providence, Rhode Island (view a map of Rhode Island)
	Medium Mahogany (primary); chestnut, yellow poplar, and cherry (secondary)
	Marks "Seril Dodge," engraved, above arbor holes on front of dial
	Inscriptions "When the moon is full / or new moon, the / tide at Newport is high. / at 7 1/2, in sepia ink, on paper label glued inside waist door; illegible inscriptions, in chalk, inside waist door
	Provenance Benjamin Barker (born ca. 1859), Tiverton, Rhode Island; by descent to his wife Hildur Swenson Barker (born 1884), Tiverton, Rhode Island; consigned to Gustave J. S. White, Newport, Rhode Island, August 25–September 24, 1962; Rhode Island Trust Company, Providence, Rhode Island; sold to Anne Northrup Ott (1929–2015) and Joseph K. Ott (1929–1994), Providence, Rhode Island, 1962; by descent to Anne Ott, Providence, Rhode Island; consigned to Christie's, New York, January 20, 2012, lot 142
	Associated names Joseph K. Ott Benjamin Barker Hildur Swenson Barker Gustave J. S. White, Inc. Rhode Island Trust Company Christie's Anne Northrop Ott
	Construction The removable arched hood is crowned with rectangular plinths supporting fluted and spiral-carved finials. The roof hood consists of several shaped boards attached to the structure below with rosehead nails. The hood?s crown molding centers a three-part fluted keystone. Below it are two full and too half-round colonettes, each with turned capitals and bases and fluted shafts. The sides of the hood, which are not glazed, fit into grooves in the bottom board of the hood. The half-colonettes are screwed to the upper and lower hood through reinforcing strips. The arched hood back is nailed with brads into rabbets in the side boards. The arched, glazed, and molded door opens to a brass dial and works. The case below contains an arched, molded and convex block and shell-carved door. The shell is attached by two screws visible on the back of the door. There are vertical chamfered glue blocks within the case, as well as numerous holes in the single-board back. The base has a simple, recessed molded panel on its front face, above a base molding and ogee bracket feet. Examined by P.E. Kane and W. S. Braznell, January 14, 2012; notes compiled by T.B. Lloyd.
	Bibliography Joseph K. Ott, "Some Rhode Island Furniture," Antiques 107, no. 5 (May 1975): 944, fig. 7. Joseph K. Ott, The John Brown House Loan Exhibition of Rhode Island Furniture, exh. cat. (Providence: The Rhode Island Historical Society, 1965), 124–25, no. 78, detail p. 170, fig. 78. William H. Distin and Robert Bishop, The American Clock: A Comprehensive Pictorial Survey, 1723–1900: With a Listing of 6153 Clockmakers (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1976), 44, fig. 72. Christie's, New York, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph K. Ott, sale cat. (January 20, 2012), 36–39, lot 142, ill. Catalog of an Exhibition of Paintings by Gilbert Stuart: Furniture by the Goddards and Townsends, Silver by Rhode Island Silversmiths, exh. cat. (Providence, R.I.: Rhode Island School of Design Museum, 1936), 16. George Leland Miner, Angell's Lane: The History of a Little Street in Providence (Providence, R.I.: Akermann-Standard Press, 1948), 78–79. "Christie's advertisement," Antiques 179, no. 1 (January–February 2012): 105, ill.