David Rittenhouse Tall Case Clock

David Rittenhouse Tall Case Clock

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Description
David Rittenhouse (1732-1796) was eighteenth-century Pennsylvania's most accomplished clock- and instrument-maker. An avid astronomer, he built complicated astronomical clocks and orreries, or planetary models, that not only kept time but predicted celestial events. These major works, coupled with his notable and widely publicized observations of Venus passing between Earth and the Sun in 1769, established him as a scientific leader and secured him an eminent place in the history of American science.
Rittenhouse was also a prominent citizen of Philadelphia, politically active on behalf of the Revolution and the new American nation. He conducted boundary surveys in the Middle Atlantic states and the Northwest Territory, succeeded Benjamin Franklin as President of the American Philosophical Society, and served as first director of the U.S. Mint.
This eight-day clock in a plain walnut case, made about 1770, reminds us, though, that Rittenhouse spent more than twenty years—from about 1750 until the Revolution—making clocks for a living. Largely self-taught, he incorporated standard English features in this timekeeper: the movement has cast brass plates and steel pinions; a seconds pendulum; an anchor escapement; a rack-and-snail striking mechanism; a second hand on the escape wheel arbor; and a calendar. The dial is engraved "David Rittenhouse/Philadelphia."
The lead weights, according to oral tradition, survived the Revolution while most others did not. Probably because they sympathized with the British, the family that owned the clock hid the weights in a well to avoid having them melted down for shot. Ironically, Rittenhouse was one of those responsible for the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety's drive to procure ammunition during the war. His duties included collecting the lead clock weights commonly in use and replacing them with iron ones.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
tall clock, Rittenhouse
tall case clock, rittenhouse
clock
Date made
ca 1770
maker
Rittenhouse, David
Place Made
United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Physical Description
wood (overall material)
brass (overall material)
steel (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 96 in x 19 in x 10 in; 243.84 cm x 48.26 cm x 25.4 cm
ID Number
1984.0416.007
catalog number
1984.0416.007
accession number
1984.0416
Credit Line
Gift of New York University
See more items in
Work and Industry: Mechanisms
Domestic Furnishings
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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Comments

It would be nice to add that this clock formerly was part of the James Arthur horological collection at NYU, and was gifted to the Smithsonian as part of a legal settlement over NYU's dispersal of the collection, and redirection of the large endowment, that they received as part of James Arthur's will in the 1920's.

Bob Frishman

Mon, 2018-03-05 12:36

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