Tall case clock

Date1823

Mediummaple, glass, brass

Dimensions90 x 240 3/4 x 11 in. (228.6 x 611.5 x 27.9 cm)

Donor credit lineODHS Purchase, in part with funds in memory of John and Anne Ricketson

Object number1993.52

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionThis tall case clock with a simple case made of different maple woods has plain cornice moldings. Either side of the face is adorned with simple Doric columns of plain rounded wooden shafts with brass bases and capitals. The painted face has Roman Numeral hours and a seconds dial, and is inscribed, "made by John Bailey 1823/ New Bedford Mass./ in his 36th year." Four corners of the face have painted fans of orange, green, and gold. The square clock face is capped with a painting of a classical landscape with a castle on hill and two figures by a pond in foreground. The hood is capped with three brass finials on top.

This stunning clock was made and sold by the influential Quaker preacher and clockmaker John Bailey Jr. (III). Bailey spent much of his career working in Hanover and then later in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Bailey and his family members were responsible for training the majority of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century clockmakers in southeastern Massachusetts. In 1823, he moved his business from Hanover to the growing city of New Bedford on the Massachusetts south coast. In addition to his reputation as a fine clockmaker and businessman, Bailey became well-known for his Anti-slavery convictions. He traveled extensively, including to the South, to preach his message of abolitionism.
ProvenancePurchased from John Delaney, West Townsend, MA.

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