This is a fine Chippendale mahogany case tall clock with an engraved brass dial signed "Benja Willard / ROXBURY." It is signed and numbered "175" on the dial. CCC-61.
This nicely proportioned tall clock case is mahogany and features a warm second-period finish. The case is supported on an applied bracket base with double-stepped molding and a drop apron. The waist section is long and centers a large tombstone-shaped waist door. This door is trimmed along its perimeter with an applied. This door opens to access the pendulum bob and two drive weights. The hood or bonnet features a molded arch that supports an applied crest. It is a solid molded arch form and centers three brass ball-and-spiked finials. The front bonnet columns are smoothly turned and mounted in brass capitals. The back quarter columns are shaped and neatly fitted into the corners of the case. The sides of the hood feature tombstone-shaped side lights. The bonnet door is also an arched form and fitted with glass. This door opens to access a wonderfully engraved brass dial.
This style of dial predates the painted dial form. It is brass and is decorated with several decorative engravings. Around the time ring, the decoration is free-flowing with large arcs and circular shapes. In the lunette is an engraved phoenix depicted with outstretched wings and its' head held high. This area is also used for the STRIKE / SILENT feature. One can manually turn the hand to the desired striking position. The Clockmaker's name. which reads, "Benja. Willard / ROXBURY," is centered on the dial. The "No. 175" is located inside the seconds display. The calendar date window is in the traditional location. The time or chapter ring features Arabic-style five-minute markers, a closed minute ring, and large Roman-style hour numerals. The hands are wonderfully hand-filed.
The two-train movement is brass, has an eight-day duration, and is good quality. Four-turned pillars or posts support the two large brass plates. Hardened steel shafts support the polished steel pinions and brass gearing. The winding drums are grooved. The escapement is designed in a recoil format. The weight-driven movement is designed to run for eight days on a full wind. It features a rack-and-snail striking system. As a result, it will strike each hour on a cast iron bell mounted above the movement.
This clock stands approximately 94 inches or 7 feet 10 inches tall to the top of the center finial. The upper bonnet molding is about 20.5 inches across and 10 inches deep.
This clock was made circa 1775 before he moved to Brookline. I consider this date to be very accurate. It is based on Benjamin Willard's clock number 131, which is dated on the front plate 1772. That clock is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection and is pictured and described in Frank Holmann's book, TIMELESS. Masterpiece American Brass Dial Clocks. This clock, number 175, must have been made approximately three years after that one based on Benjamin's production output. In addition, both clocks feature engraved brass dials of very similar design.
Inventory number CCC-61.
Benjamin Willard is the oldest of four Willard clockmaking brothers. His younger brother Simon is considered by many to be America’s most famous Clockmaker. The two other younger brothers that also made clocks include Ephraim and Aaron. Benjamin was born on March 19, 1743. As a New England Clockmaker, he never stayed in one location for an extended period of time. In December 1764, Benjamin advertised himself as a maker of shoe lasts and was working in East Hartford, Connecticut, at the home of Benjamin Cheney. Because Cheney was an established Clockmaker, it is logical to assume that he received some wooden geared clock training from him. Two signed Benjamin wooden geared clocks are known, and both feature the Cheney construction form. He is also recorded as buying land from his Father in Grafton on May 18, 1864, and then a second lot on August 20, 1766. Returning from Hartford to Grafton sometime in 1766, and by early 1767, Benjamin relocated to Lexington, Massachusetts. Here it is recorded that he worked with and then succeeded the brass clockmaker Nathaniel Mulliken Sr (1722-1776). It is thought that Benjamin received some level of brass construction clockmaking training from Mulliken before he passed in late 1767. Shortly after that, he hired John Morris to teach himself and his brothers Simon and Aaron, brass clockmaking. During this period, he advertised that he maintained separate shops in both towns until 1771 when it appears he moved the Lexington shop to Roxbury. The location of this shop is not currently known. It is thought to have been on Roxbury Street. The Roxbury shop then moved to Brookline in 1775. This is an important date because it represents the changeover from Roxbury Signed clocks to the Grafton examples. During the period 1777-78, he advertised being located in Medford. Benjamin moved back to Grafton and Worcester and then to Baltimore, Maryland, where he died in September of 1803.
Benjamin Willard numbered many of his clocks. The highest number recorded to date is No. 699. Robert Cheney reports to have seen No. 16 and has stated that this clock is dated 1768 and is signed Grafton. The Willard Museum owns No. 18. It is also dated 1768, but this clock is signed Lexington. No. 80 is also signed Lexington (Masonic Museum). The next few clocks recorded are No. 104,105, 114, and 115. These clocks are signed Grafton. No 131 is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is signed Roxbury and dated 1772. This starts a long stretch of clocks, including 132, 135, 138, 142, 146, 153, 154, 155, 157, 163, 175, 181, 191, 198, 202, 207, 209, 213, 219, 221, 232, 239 that are all signed Roxbury. Very few of the clocks in this sequence of Roxbury place locations are signed Grafton. These numbers currently include 146 and 228. By number 269, the changeover from Roxbury to Grafton occurs. All clocks know after 269 are signed Grafton if they have a place location listed.
On September 3, 1789, Benjamin advertised in the Herald and Worcester Recorder that he had moved from Grafton to Worcester and that he had manufactured 359 clocks in the past 23 years. That works out to approximately 15 or 16 clocks per year during that period. He also states that he had left Roxbury in 1775. Current research suggests that somewhere shortly after clock number 239, he moved from Roxbury, and these are perhaps pre-revolutionary.
