Federal Figured and Inlaid Mahogany Tall Case Clock

Object Details

Object Essay

Matthew Egerton, Jr., of New Brunswick, New Jersey, is one of the best-documented American cabinetmakers with respect to labeled furniture. In 1930, William Macpherson Hornor, Jr., noted that “no less than seventeen labeled examples” testified “to the versatile genius of this New Brunswick craftsman who produced outstanding American furniture.”^{1_{William Macpherson Hornor, Jr., “Matthew Egerton, Jr., Cabinetmaker of New Jersey,” The Antiquarian (15 December 1930), 51–53.}} Among these pieces were several tall-case clocks, including a frequently published example formerly in the collection of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell and now in the Monmouth County Historical Society in New Jersey.^{2_{Ibid., 52.}}

Containing works by Leslie and Williams of New Brunswick, the Haskell tall-case clock includes the hallmarks of Egerton’s work: “French feet, and fans and circular inlay of satinwood on the long door and base, also mahogany insets and feathered edges.”^{3_{Bjerkoe, 87.}} Many of these same elements are present in the Collection’s clock, which has been attributed to Matthew Egerton, Jr., on the basis of its similarity to several of his labeled cases. The elegantly arched hood with a molded crest terminating in petal inlaid scrolls appears on clocks labeled by Egerton, and also on other New Jersey clocks, most notably those made in Elizabethtown.

According to Marilyn Johnson, the Department of State’s clock closely resembles clocks made in the Elizabethtown area and particularly the work of John Scudder or Abraham Rosset.^{4_{Marilyn Johnson, “Clockmakers and Cabinetmakers of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in the Federal Period,” master’s thesis, University of Delaware 1963.}} Of great similarity is a clock case labeled by Abraham Rosset and Abraham Mulford, “near the Stone Bridge in Elizabeth-Town,” with an oval inlaid eagle and a line-inlaid arch door and base. With works by Isaac Brokaw and Joakim Hill, the Elizabethtown clocks form a cohesive group of cases, which gain a “feeling of height . . . from the effective use of circular and elliptical stringing and the vertical thrust of the fluted inlay, columns and quarter columns.”^{5_{Battison and Kane, no. 20.}} Like other cabinetmakers of the period, Joakim Hill purchased cases from local cabinetmakers. One of these clocks, now in the Monmouth County Historical Society, has been attributed to John Scudder based on its similarity to another labeled example.^{6_{Lyle and Zimmerman, 203.}}

Whoever the maker of the case for the Collection’s clock, it is one of the most elaborate of the New Jersey tall-case clocks. It was one of the first purchases for the Diplomatic Reception Rooms.

Page Talbott

Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.