AFA 22nd Anniversary

2022 Antiques & Fine Art 109 1. The clock was advertised for sale by Nathan Liverant & Son in the October 1985 issue of The Magazine Antiques . William Hosley is an historian and curator based in Enfield, Connecticut . Note : I had extraordinary input for this article from Patricia Kane, Davida Deutsch, Lynne Bassett, Philip Zea, Jamie Franklin, Nathan Liverant & Son, Jane Broderick, and Nancy Rexford—all kindred spirits. This article truly took a village. shallow spiral around her arm, the fichu (a type of shawl) around her shoulders, and her cross-over bodice were high fashion in 1796, the likely year the clock was made. Even the scroll-top chair she is sitting on is fashion forward for the 1790s. How did a farmer-clockmaker in the agrarian Connecticut River Valley of the 1790s, come up with a composition like this? The possible answer is that Ellsworth had print sources for his inspiration. But without hard evidence, of which there is none to date, we can only speculate. There’s another detail, easily missed. Beneath the crossed garlands just below the woman and her parrot is an inscription: “H. Clark, sculpt” (Fig. 6b). It seems Ellsworth didn’t engrave the dial. But who was H. Clark? The Yale Art Gallery collection has spoons with his mark (clockmakers often worked as silversmiths), as does the Fig. 6b: Detail showing Horatio Clark signature. Image courtesy, Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution (CTDAR). Fig. 6a: Detail showing Horatio Clark engraving. Image courtesy, Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution (CTDAR). Bennington Museum in the Vermont town where Horatio Clark (1773–1833) resettled and commenced metalworking with a partner Jonathan Hunt in 1797—hence the suggestion that the Ellsworth clock was likely made the year before. In Bennington, Hunt & Clark advertised “plated work of the most fashionable kind” and horse harness hardware, while continuing with clock and watch making, also “gold beads, spoons, etc.” Clocks with engraved dials signed by both the clockmaker and engraver are extremely rare. One other known example was made by clockmaker Reuben Ingraham (1745–1811) and is also signed by an engraver, John Avery (1732–1794), both of southeastern Connecticut. 1 Thanks to an enlightened heir determined to see that this clock find a home in a museum in the place it was from, and Jennie Rehnberg, CTDAR Honorary Regent and past Curator General of the DAR, who leapt at a time-sensitive opportunity, the David Ellsworth clock will be on view when the CTDAR’s Oliver Ellsworth Homestead in Windsor, Connecticut, opens for tours. Fig. 5: David Ellsworth clock dial, engraved by Horatio Clark. Image courtesy, Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution (CTDAR).