image of object
From: Richard L. Champlin, "William Claggett and his Clockmaking Family," A Supplement to the Bulletin of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Inc. 11 (Summer 1976): 36, fig. 22
Click the image to enlarge

Tall case clock

Object number

RIF5375

Maker

Casemaker Unknown
Clockmaker James Wady, died 1759

Dimensions

95 × 20 1/2 × 10 5/8 in. (241.3 × 52.07 × 26.99 cm)

Date

ca. 1752

Current location

Newport Historical Society

Geography

Made in Newport, Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Walnut (primary); pine (backboard, block behind lock, and dial mat); chestnut (blocks for hinges); maple (saddleboard)

Marks

"James Wady / Newport," engraved on nameplate below hands on brass dial

Inscriptions

"Old clock built in 1752. Bought in 1801" written on a paper label on the case interior

Provenance

By tradition, Polypus Hammond (1702–1773) , Newport, Rhode Island; by descent to James Lorenzo Hammond (1868–1921), Mattapoisett, Massachusetts; by descent to his daughter, Catherine Hammond Frizzell; bequeathed to the Newport Historical Society, Rhode Island, 1974

Associated names

Polypus Hammond
James Lorenzo Hammond
Catherine Hammond Frizzell

Construction

The removable hood is surmounted by an ogee-shaped superstructure with a flat, molded-edge roof, flanked by ball and steeple brass finials on small rectangular plinths. Below a single-piece crown molding are spandrels with openwork vegetal ornament laid over colored fabric, above an arched, molded, glazed door, with engaged three-quarter round colonnettes, opening to a brass dial and works. There are rectangular glazed portals on the sides of the hood, and engaged quarter round colonnettes at the back. The waisted case below consists of a single-piece beaded-cove molding above a flat, rectangular, single-piece door with molded edge, surrounded by stiles and rails tenoned together without wood pins. The case sides are single boards. The door swings by means of two pairs of brass hinges, fixed to the backside of the door and to the case stiles with brass and rosehead nails. There are several vertical chamfered glue blocks within the case. A three-part molding applied with brads sits upon the plain base, above a base molding with integral bracket feet. Examined by P.E. Kane and J.N. Johnson, March 26, 2014; notes compiled by T.B. Lloyd.

Bibliography

Richard L. Champlin, "William Claggett and His Clockmaking Family," Newport History: Bulletin of the Newport Historical Society 47, Part 3 (Summer 1974): 179, ill.
Richard L. Champlin, "James Wady," Newport History 48, no. 160 (Fall 1975): 350, 353, ill.
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): 36–37, fig. 22, 23.
Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann III, Claggett: Newport's Illustrious Clockmakers (Winterthur, Del.: Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, 2018), 241–42, 246, WC-25, JW-8.