Description:
Wall clock attributed to Aaron Willard, Jr. (1783-1864), which descended in the donor's family. If a clock was desired to keep accurate time and sent the message of status, the reputation of the Willard family for fine, eight-day timepieces drew patrons from throughout northeastern United States. The eldest brother, Benjamin Willard (1743-1803), was the first of three generations of Willard clock and watch makers who started working in Grafton, Massachusetts, in 1766; when the clockmaker Nathaniel Mulliken Sr. of Lexington, Massachusetts, died in 1767, Benjamin moved there and took over his business, while his younger brothers, Aaron (1757-1844) and Simon (1753-1848), stayed behind in Grafton continuing to make clocks and watch repairs. Simon also experimented with new forms that reduced the size of clock movements, and in 1801, introduced a wall clock with a patented design (patented 1802) with its Patent Timepiece movement, later known as a "banjo" clock. Benjamin Willard set up shop in Roxbury in 1771, followed by Simon and Aaron whose names first appear on the tax roles in 1783, each working in a separate location. Their sons and a grandson continued the profession: Simon's sons, Simon Jr. (1795-1881) opened his own business in Boston in 1828 specializing in manufacturing chronometers and Benjamin (1803-1847) worked with his brother, and Simon Jr.'s son, Zabdiel Adams (1826-after 1911) continued making pocket chronometers; Aaron's sons, Aaron Jr. (1783-1864) took over the business in 1823, which Aaron Sr. had moved to Boston about 1792, and Henry (1802-1887) specialized in making clock cases. Since this was a new clock form, the Willards had to turn to local sources for parts and decorative elements. Suppliers included John Doggett (1780-1857) of Roxbury who produced such items as gilded eagles, brackets or pedestals, balls, swags, and painted tablets for patent pieces, and William Hunneman who provided castings of "side pieces," bezels for the round glass, and wheel blanks. Decorative painters of dials and glass tablets such as Charles Bullard (1794-1871), Spenser Nolan, and John Ritto Penniman (1782–1841) had to understand pigments, varnish, and how to conceive their works "backwards"; the earliest style of ornamental painting on patent timepieces was delicate, geometric, and non-pictorial; floral motifs were featured later, followed by romantic imagery framed by linear borders; and then biblical, mythological and military themes. The importance of this timepiece lies in its typicality; numerous features in the case and mechanism reflect the provisions set forth in Simon Willard's 1802 patent for a non-striking wall clock. The banjo-shaped clock has a ball-and-spire brass finial (replacement) on a ogee finial plinth; a circular white-painted iron dial with Arabic numerals (original) protected by a convex glass framed in a round brass bezel; a long, trapizoidal throat with a eglomise or reverse-painted glass panel in a cross-banded mahogany veneer frame, decorated in red, mustard, and gilding with a floral spray, leaves and berries, over the inscribed "WILLARD'S PATENT", over a figure of Justice holding a sword and scales, all flanked by brass side arms (original); and a rectangular pendulum box with a reverse-painted glass panel in a cross-banded mahogany veneer frame, outlined with a leaf and berry pattern and an oval-shaped abstract floral pattern in the center. Both painted panels are original. The clock has an eight-day anchor recoil escapement movement, powered by a replacement iron weight (inscribed "HT") and regulated by a brass-faced, lead-backed pendulum bob suspended from a T-bridge suspension. The movement is secured to the case by filister head screw and has an alternate train layout of wheel work. There are no replacements to the movement.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+93.030 |
