The Important Josiah Cotton Federal Inlaid and Parcel-Gilt Mahogany Dwarf Tall-Case Clock, Works by Calvin Bailey, Massachusetts circa 1800

Dial inscribed: Made for Josiah Cotton BY-CALVIN BAILEY. Appears to retain its original finials and pierced fret-work. Appears to retain its original surface and hardware. May retain its original weights. Inside of backboard inscribed: Nov 1800.

According to a family member, purchased by Fred F. Rogers from the King Caesar House in Duxbury, Massachusetts.

Secondary wood is white pine; proper left front foot with 1 1/2 inches of foot facing restored. Early documents to be included with the lot. The clock comes with two weights. Note that there is no pendulum included with this lot.
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The inscription on the dial of this dwarf clock records that it was made for Josiah Cotton by Calvin Bailey (1761-1835), a member of the prominent Bailey family of clockmakers of Hanover, Massachusetts. Son of the Quaker clockmaker, John Bailey Sr. (1730-1810), Calvin worked as a farmer as well as a clockmaker. His kept a daybook, in which he itemized the prices for clocks.^[1] In 1799, he noted that a plain eight-day tall case clock cost $35 while a clock with a moon dial cost $41.50. In 1807, clocks with moon dials were priced at $40 and clocks with alarms cost $50. Cases cost an additional $20. In 1809, Calvin was producing few clocks, although one entry indicates that he transported 600 pounds of clock weights from Easton, where they apparently were cast. He moved to Bath, Maine in 1828 and died seven years later.

Dwarf clocks became popular in America around 1800 and the Bailey clockmakers were early producers of the form in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. A chalk inscription on the inside of the backboard indicates that Calvin Bailey made this clock in November 1800. He housed his movement in a finely finished case with pierced fretwork, highly figured mahogany veneers, inset quarter columns with brass capitols and bases, and ogee bracket feet. Josiah Cotton (1747-1819) of Plymouth, Massachusetts was the son of John Cotton (1712-1789), a minister and graduate of Harvard in 1730, and the grandson of Josiah Cotton (1680-1756), a schoolmaster, Indian missionary, Harvard graduate, and public servant. Reverend Cotton followed the profession of his father and served as a minister at Wareham, Massachusetts before becoming a magistrate and Clerk of the Court for Plymouth County.

¹ Chris Bailey, Two Hundred Years of American Clocks & Watches, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1975, pp. 50, 96, and 225 and Brooks Palmer, The Book of American Clocks, New York, 1928, p. 141