A New Dimension of Tradition: Important American Folk Art, Proceeds of the Sale to Benefit a New Folk Art Initiative at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A New Dimension of Tradition: Important American Folk Art, Proceeds of the Sale to Benefit a New Folk Art Initiative at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
EXCEPTIONAL FEDERAL PAINT AND SMOKE-DECORATED PINE TALL-CASE CLOCK, WORKS BY SILAS HOADLEY, PLYMOUTH, CONNECTICUT, CIRCA 1810-20
Auction Closed
January 25, 10:08 PM GMT
Estimate
150,000 - 250,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
EXCEPTIONAL FEDERAL PAINT AND SMOKE-DECORATED PINE TALL-CASE CLOCK, WORKS BY SILAS HOADLEY, PLYMOUTH, CONNECTICUT, CIRCA 1810-20
The molded arched bonnet flanked by fluted column finials over an arched glazed door flanked by pilasters enclosing a white enamel circular dial with Arabic numerals, embellished with gilt spandrels, signed S. Hoadley Plymouth and set before a key winding wood eight-day weight-driven mechanism, the face surmounted by an ellipse of Masonic symbols on a waisted pendulum case on a box base with scalloped apron and black feet, decorated throughout with a smoke-like pattern created by a free-form application of paint in shades of gray and ecru. The interior of the trunk door with a paper label inscribed This clock to be given to Millard E. Day Mary L Wells.
Height 81 ½ in. by Width 18 ½ in. by Depth 9 ¾ in.
Elisabeth Garrett, "A Lakeside Retreat," The Magazine Antiques, January 2008, p. 175.
Silas Hoadley (1786–1870) was one the leading American clockmakers of the first half of the nineteenth century and is best known for his tall-case and shelf clocks. Like this example, most of his tall-case clocks had wooden works. He was a partner with fellow Connecticut clockmakers Eli Terry (1772–1852) and Seth Thomas (1785–1859), who pioneered the mass production of works for tall-case clocks between 1807 and 1810. These mass-produced works, thousands of which continued to be made by all three men after their partnership split up, made clocks affordable to the burgeoning American middle class, who could choose equally inexpensive pine or poplar cases built and painted for them by local retailers.
The works and delicately painted face of this clock are signed by Hoadley, while the painter of the simple case is unidentified. Painting with smoke was popular in the early decades of the nineteenth century; the technique involved applying a wet coat of paint over a dry base layer and then passing a smoking tallow candle across the surface to create random translucent patterns.
Another tall-case clock by Hoadley with a paint-decorated pine case is illustrated in Sumpter Priddy, American Fancy, (Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The Chipstone Foundation, 2004), fig. 203, p. 120.