Benjamin Hanks of Litchfield, Connecticut. An inlaid cherry case tall clock. 212103.
This inlaid cherry case tall clock measures approximately 7 feet 9.5 inches or 93.5 inches tall to the top of the center finial, 20.5 inches wide, and 10.5 inches deep. The dial measures the standard 12 inches across. It was made by Benjamin Hanks of Litchfield, Connecticut, circa 1790.
This case is in excellent condition. The case stands on four nicely formed and flared French feet. A scrolled apron that visually hangs from the base panel transitions from one foot to the next. The feet are separated from this panel by a line inlay that divides the two sections, feet and base, on all three sides. The base panel features good horizontal grain in long, gentle lines. A string inlay frame featuring ovolo corners helps to center the center oval inlay. This panel features an American eagle with outstretched wings clutching an American shield. The waist is fitted with a rectangular door decorated with inlay. The door is trimmed with a molded edge. One would open this door to access the inside of the case. Here, the pendulum rod, brass-faced bob, rating nut, and two drive weights are accessible. The sides of the case are fitted with fluted quarter columns. Both terminate in brass quarter capitals. The bonnet features a pierced and open fretwork design. It is supported by three fluted plinths surmounted by three brass finials. The front bonnet columns are smoothly turned and fluted. These are mounted in brass capitals and visually support the upper bonnet molding. The back columns are also fluted. These are neatly fitted into the back corners of the case—the sides of the hood feature tombstone-shaped side lights, which are fitted with glass. The bonnet door is also an arched form and fitted with glass. This door opens to access the dial.
The iron-painted dial is signed by the Maker, “Ben’ Hanks. Litchfield.” The floral decorations in each of the four spandrel areas are colorfully formatted. The display of the time and date is done in the traditional format. This dial also features a lunar calendar or moon phase mechanism in its arch.
This movement is constructed in brass and is of good quality. It is weight-driven and designed to run for eight days on a full wind. It is a time-and-strike design with a rack and snail striking system. As a result, it will strike each hour on the hour. This is done on a cast iron bell mounted above the movement.
This beautiful clock was made circa 1790. It stands approximately 7 feet 9.5 inches tall to the top of the center finial. The upper bonnet molding is 21.75 inches wide and 11.25 inches deep.
Condition: I believe this fine example lacks any significant repairs or restorations. The dial has had the calendar wheel restored. The movement has been fully serviced and is in excellent working order.
Inventory number 212103.
Benjamin Hanks was a skillful and energetic mechanic who made clocks and watches and carried out each of their repair businesses. He is better known as and was a goldsmith, a maker of stockings, looms, compasses, brass cannons, and large church bells.
Benjamin Hanks was born in Mansfield, Connecticut, on October 29, 1755, the son of Uriah and Irene (Case) Hanks. The Hanks family was an inventive group. At one time, they became the Nation’s largest silk producers by importing the first mulberry trees from England, planting them in Connecticut, and raising silkworms. Soon, they invented and improved the apparatus for making silk into thread and constructed the first powered silk mill in the United States. The family built numerous forges, and Benjamin is believed to be the first to cast large bells and bronze cannons in the Country.
It is recorded that Benjamin learned the clockmaking trade from Thomas Harland, a noted Norwich clockmaker. Benjamin must have arrived at Harland’s doorstep with a solid mechanical background because his service with Harland had to be unusually short. Harland didn’t arrive in Norwich until 1773, and Benjamin is said to have been in the Boston area just before April 1775. Why, well, it is recorded that Benjamin served as a drummer during the Revolution and, in that role, took part in the march to Lexington in response to Paul Revere’s alarm. Shortly after, he enlisted or was assigned to General Israel Putnam’s Third Connecticut Regiment. Putnam was originally from Danvers, Massachusetts, and moved to Pomfret, CT, to pursue inexpensive land. Putnam rushed north when he received news of the Battle at Lexington and Concord and joined the Patriot cause. He was a primary figure at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Perhaps Benjamin knew Putnam from his time in Connecticut? During this tumultuous time in our Country’s history, Hanks is said to have worked in a foundry owned by Paul Revere during and after the war. And yet, he still had time to marry Alice Hovey about 1775 in Windham, CT. (Alice Hovey was born on December 15, 1754, in Mansfield Center, CT, christened on January 19, 1755, in Mansfield Center, CT, and died in Troy, NY.
By 1777, at the age of twenty-two, Benjamin Hanks advertises from Windham, Connecticut, as a Clock and Watchmaker and that he continued in the metal-smiths trade making (according to an advertisement from the late 1770s) spurs, buckles, beads, hilts, clocks, and watches, as well as general silver and gold work. In 1780, Benjamin moved to Litchfield, CT, and built a house and shop at 39 South Street to carry on his business. It is in the town of Litchfield that he performs the following accomplishments. Shortly after the move, Benjamin was awarded the contract to make the clock for the Old Dutch Church at Nassau and Liberty Streets in New York City. In 1783, he petitioned the General Assembly for a patent for his invention of a clock wound automatically by air, and in 1785, he advertised his clocks, Church clocks, pneumatic clocks, watches with center sweep seconds, surveyors’ compasses, etc. In 1786, he established a foundry and began casting large church bells. On August 6, 1787, Benjamin installed a bell in the Litchfield meeting house. The original one was broken. This bell was paid for by the society. In early 1790, he set up a “Brazier’s business.” In 1790, Benjamin moved to Mansfield, where he continued to make clocks and bells and carried on the woolen business. In 1808, he and his son Truman formed a partnership in the bell business and built a foundry in Troy, NY. The foundry made an assortment of items, including tower clocks, surveying tools, and church bells. One young man apprenticed at the Hanks’ West Troy foundry was Andrew Meneely, who would later establish his own foundry in Troy and become one of America’s leading bell-makers. Meneely is also buried in the Rural Cemetery in a family lot on the Middle Ridge. On November 4, Benjamin was granted a patent for “Molding and Casting bells.”
Benjamin Hanks died in Troy, New York, in December of 1824 at the age of 70.
