Hello Christopher,
Thank you for sending in this fine of floor clock to be appraised. It will be my pleasure to help you with it today.
TITLE:
American Federal era, stained pine (or cherrywood), two weight, 30 hour with hourly striking, tallcase clock, wooden geared movement wound by pulling up the chains or cords of the two weights, unsigned, attributed to Connecticut, USA, circa 1820-1830.
DESCRIPTION:
CASE: 78" high 12" deep, stained pine or cherry tall case clock with broken arch molded pediment having two volute inlays in the terminal of each arch. There is a central plinth made to hold a finial. An arched cornice sits above an arched glazed dial door with wooden pins, and the door is flanked by two free standing block, turned and ringed wooden colonnettes. The sides of the hood are solid. A horizontal reeded and concave molding transitions down to the trunk section with a full length door in rectilinear shape with a round wooden pull. The sides of the casing are chamfered top to bottom, terminating in 'lamb's tongues'. The molding below is ogival in shape and there is a vertical rectangular base with chamfered corners. All rest on straight French feet with a gentle undulating apron in between, in the style of John Scudder, cabinetmaker of Westfield, New Jersey during the years 1790-1816, although I do not believe this is one of his cases, perhaps an apprentice. . . .
Dial: Arched, painted white, wooden dial with upright Arabic hours, closed bar minute ring with Arabic numerals placed every fifteen minutes at the quarters. There are two painted faux winding holes, the hands are missing and the four corner spandrels are pained in the form of colorful red and gold geometric fans. The dial is unsigned and the lunette is shared by what appears to be a couple of cartoon type characters. . . .
Movement: Not shown. However, this would be a rectangular shaped wooden movement with rectilinear solid oak plates front and back, cherrywood cut gearing, brass anchor escapement , long steel pendulum rod and round metal bob swing in the case below. There should be two tin canister weights filled with stones or two iron weights which when fully wound will run the clock for thirty hours. Winding is by pulling the weight cords or chains up onto the movement. . . .
Condition: Some wear present on the case surface, but generally well preserved. The arch in the hood door frame has two breaks. Mild irregularities in the shaping of the apron skirting at the base, which is why I do not think this is the work of John Scudder himself. (Scudder had several apprentices and many cabinetmakers in the northeast part of the Colonies and the Republic admired and copied a good deal of his styling. . . . . A wonderful piece of historic American Federal (1790-1925/30) era design. In terms of restoration - this clock needs steel skeletonized diamond shaped minute and hour hands and a simple brass ball and spire central finial. Nothing else need be done. . . . .
It was my pleasure to be of service to you today.
My fair market appraisal is based on actual recent past comparable sales recorded at auctions of similar unsigned Federal tallcase clocks. The fair market value would be approximately $1750-$2250 at auction today. Retail "asking prices" can, of course, be significantly higher and vary.
Best regards,
David