Samuel Edwards of Gorham, Maine. A spectacular wooden gear tall clock. 2604.
This tall clock is in very good condition. Its presentation is typical of the standard form that one would expect from an Ashby Clockmaker. The case is pine and has been grain painted. It stands on nicely shaped cutout bracket feet that are applied to the base. The waist is long and features a simple rectangular-shaped waist door. The molded arched bonnet features a pierced, open fretwork design and three chimney plinths. Turned wooden finials are positioned on the two outside plinths. The center plinth does not have any evidence of ever having a finial mounted to it. The bonnet door is in an arched form and is fitted with glass. Fully turned bonnet columns support the upper bonnet molding.
The arched dial is painted on wood. The spandrel areas are paint-decorated in rich fall colors. The Clockmaker's name is signed on the dial.
The wooden geared movement is the construction one expects from this clockmaking school. It is a time and strike and of fine quality. It is designed to run for 30 hours on a full wind.
This clock was made circa 1815. The overall height of this example is 7 feet 1.5 inches tall.
Inventory number 2604.
Samuel Edwards "Jr." was born on August 18, 1787. He was the first of six children born to Calvin Edwards and Mary (Houghton) Edwards of Ashby, Massachusetts. Samuel's father and uncle Abraham were productive clockmakers. In partnership, they signed their tall clock dials "A & C Edwards." They began making wooden geared tall case clocks in 1792. It is estimated that they made approximately 600 clocks before Calvin died on March 16, 1796. Calvin died from blood poisoning caused by a wound he received on his leg below the knee from falling from a tree. Samuel would have been just nine years old. After Calvin's death, his uncle continued manufacturing clocks under his name. It is assumed that Samuel learned clockmaking from his uncle. We have owned numerous clocks signed by both the partnership and Samuel Edwards.
In 1808, it was recorded that Samuel moved to Gorham, Maine. Three years later, on November 5, 1811, Samuel married Nancy Burr of Ashby. They had seven children. Here in Gorham, Samuel continues to make wooden geared clocks. Many of which feature an unusual dial arrangement. The size of the wooden dial blank stays at the traditional measurement of 12 inches across. The hour and minute time rings are scaled down to 7.5 inches in diameter. These time rings are then repositioned from the center to below the dial's center. Above this is an overlapping time ring that displays only the seconds, again 7.5 inches in diameter. A large second hand, measuring almost 6 inches in many cases, sweeps around this and is visually impressive. We have seen this format on clocks made in Ashby as well. In fact, we have owned clocks made by Alex Tarbell Willard ( At work in Ashby 1800 - 1830) and John Edwards (At work 1809 - 1812) that share this dial arrangement. It is interesting to note that a large percentage of Samuel's clocks are formatted this way. It is a later feature in this wooden-geared production run. Sometime in 1823-24, Samuel moved from Gorham to Portland. He becomes a Brass founder and is not reported to have made clocks there. Samuel died in Maine on February 13, 1853. He was 65 years old.
