The Ryerson family, prominent 18th-century landowners in Brooklyn, New York, purchased this clock about 1760. The imported clock, made in England in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, was a rarity in its time and signaled the purchasers’ wealth, taste and status in colonial society.
The clock features an eight-day, weight-driven brass movement that strikes the hours. The brass dial features a date aperture, a silvered chapter ring with Roman hour numerals and silvered signature plaque signed “Isaac Rogers/London.” The case features a blue finish made to imitate the then-mysterious techniques of Japanese and Chinese lacquer work.
Isaac Rogers had a trade establishment and watchmaking business at White Hart Court, Lombard Street, London. Timepieces for the Ottoman market were among his specialties. His son, also Isaac Rogers, succeeded him in business and became a master in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, London.
Reference:
Rogers, Isaac. The Dictionary of National Biography, 1897.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.