Tall Clock Case with Blue-lacquer Case, about 1760

Description:

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.

Date Made: ca 1760

Maker: Rogers, Isaac

Location: Currently not on view (case fragments)Currently not on view (dial frame)Currently not on viewCurrently not on view (pendulum; weights)

Place Made: United Kingdom: England

See more items in: Work and Industry: Mechanisms, Measuring & Mapping

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of Mr. J. Ryerson

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 1987.0852.01Catalog Number: 1987.0852.01Accession Number: 1987.0852

Object Name: tall case clock, English--movement and dial onlytall case clock

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-760f-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1203261

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