Rhode Island Furniture Archive - Yale University Art Gallery

Photo: Courtesy of Gary R. Sullivan, photo by David Hansen Click the image to enlarge	Tall case clock
	Object number RIF2305
	Maker Clockmaker James Wady, died 1759 Maker, formerly attributed to Job Townsend, Sr., 1699–1765 Maker, formerly attributed to Christopher Townsend, 1701–1787 Casemaker Unknown
	Dimensions 94 3/4 � 21 1/2 � 10 1/2 in. (240.665 � 54.61 � 26.67 cm)
	Date 1750–59
	Current location Private Collection
	Geography Made in Newport, Rhode Island (view a map of Rhode Island)
	Medium Mahogany (primary); chestnut (backboard, saddleboard); pine (top of hood); maple (base of hood)
	Marks "IAMES: WADY • NEWPORT," engraved, on silvered nameplate above lunar dial
	Inscriptions "LH BENNETT / DUXBURY / MASS / 1968," in graphite, on interior backboard near top; the poem "The Old Clock," in typescript, glued to interior of case
	Provenance Probably Charles Hunter, Newport, Rhode Island; by descent to his son-in-law and daughter Thomas Dunn (1835–1916), Newport, Rhode Island and Kate Hunter Dunn (1849–1930), Newport, Rhode Island; by descent to their daughter, Anna Caroline Rotch Dunn (1879–1959), Newport, Rhode Island; by descent to her cousin, Reverend Elbert Lansing Bennett (1899–1985), Salisbury, Maryland; by descent to his son, Dr. Lansing Heppe Bennett (1926–1993), Duxbury, Massachusetts. Christie's, New York, January 21, 2000, lot 126. Christie's, New York, January 19, 2018, lot 159.
	Associated names Christie's Thomas Dunn Kate Hunter Dunn Dr. Lansing Heppe Bennett Anna Caroline Rotch Dunn Reverend Elbert Lansing Bennett Hunter - Dunn family Charles Hunter
	Bibliography "Christie's advertisement," Antiques 157, no. 1 (January 2000): 49, ill. Christie's, New York, Important American Furniture, Silver, and Folk Art: Featuring English Pottery from the Collection of the Late Robert J. Kahn and the Lafayette-Washington Pistols, sale cat. (January 18–19, 2002), 224, fig. 6. Christie's, New York, Important American Furniture, Silver, Prints, Folk Art, and Decorative Arts, sale cat. (January 21, 2000), 90–93, lot 126. Richard L. Champlin, "William Claggett and His Clockmaking Family," Supplement to the Bulletin of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Inc. 11 (Summer 1976): 34–35, fig. 20–21. Patricia E. Kane et al., Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2016), 111n19. Christie's, New York, Important American Furniture, Folk Art, and Silver, sale cat. (January 19, 2018), 76–81, lot 159, ill. Lita Solis-Cohen, "Washington and Wady Clock Top Christie's Americana Auction," Maine Antique Digest (March 2018): 34-D, ill. "Hail to the Chief at Christie's," Antiques and the Arts Weekly (February 16, 2018): 27, ill. Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann III, Claggett: Newport's Illustrious Clockmakers (Winterthur, Del.: Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, 2018), 151–52, 214–15, 246, no. 20, JW-4, fig. 5.28. The Claggetts of Newport: Master Clockmakers in Colonial America, exh. cat. (Newport, R I.: Redwood Library and Athenaeum, 2019), 41, ill. Richard L. Champlin, "James Wady," Newport History 48, no. 160 (Fall 1975): 353–354, 356, ill.