Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann III, with an introduction by Dennis Carr. Claggett: Newport’s Illustrious Clockmakers. A Winterthur Book. Winterthur, Del.: Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and Newport Historical Society, 2018. 268 pp.; 321 color illus., catalogue, checklist, bibliography, index. Distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London. $65.00.
For decades, scholars and collectors of colonial American clockmaker William Claggett (1696–1749) have referred to the booklet William Claggett and His Clockmaking Family, published in 1976 by the National -Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC). Previously appearing in the Bulletin of the Newport Historical Society, the material published there was gathered and written by librarian, historian, and polymath Richard L. Champlin (1906–2003). His forty-eight-page study, in its bright orange soft cover, was the most complete treatise on three Rhode Island clockmakers—William Claggett, James Wady, and Thomas Claggett—whose names and work were recorded (often inaccurately) in prior volumes by Luke Vincent Lockwood, Wallace Nutting, Edward G. Miller, Brooks Palmer, and others.
Much more recently, Claggett family clocks have been featured in Timeless by Frank L. Hohmann III and Musical Clocks of Early America, 1730–1830 by Gary R. Sullivan and Kate Van Winkle Keller (also reviewed in this -issue). As Claggett clocks appeared at auction and were discussed at conferences, more information emerged. On June 5, 2015, a day-long seminar entitled “Time Well Spent: Clockmaking in Colonial America” convened at the Redwood Library & Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island. Arguably the finest known example of a William Claggett tall clock, owned by that venerable institution, stood in the seminar room. This clock and the Claggett -story also were discussed at the “Clocks at Winterthur” symposium (-October 6–8, 2016), sponsored by the NAWCC at that Delaware museum, which proudly displays its Thomas Claggett dwarf timepiece.
Now an even more definitive book is available. Frank Hohmann, the New York collector whom we thank for his two prior comprehensive volumes on American brass dial clocks and on the Stretch family of Pennsylvania clockmakers, again has teamed with Winterthur curator emeritus Don Fennimore to produce this equally impressive hardcover. It is bolstered with introductory essays by two well-known experts on early Rhode Island furniture, curators Patricia E. Kane at the Yale University Art Gallery and Dennis Carr at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, who remind us that clocks often were our forbearers’ costliest personal possessions, favored as interest in science and technology grew among elite colonists.
Although not intended to be a catalogue raisonné, nor claiming the risky role of authenticating clocks by these artisans, the book and its authors provide an in-depth catalogue of twenty-eight examples selected as the most important of the eighty-nine clocks shown in the larger “Checklist” of all that could be located. These mostly are eight-day movements in tall cases, more desirable and accurate than cheaper daily-wind floor clocks and wall-hanging lantern clocks of the period. Each clock’s accompanying text also shows its assigned number in the Rhode Island Furniture Archive created and maintained at Yale.
It may not be all that astonishing that so many of these clocks survive. They are top-quality decorative-arts masterpieces that were prized when new, cherished as they aged, and permanently appreciated as iconic artifacts. Rare—or extremely eccentric—would be the Claggett owner who dragged his or her clock to the landfill or curb when it stopped working or would not fit in the retirement condo. One was saved by an estate attorney who, in 1979, drove his station wagon to the Rhode Island Historical Society and dropped off a signed Claggett clock in a Boston japanned case. This reviewer learned the saga of that fortuitous bequest from Robert Emlen of Brown University, who worked for the society at the time.
Readers may question the choice of these specific twenty-eight featured clocks, but the longer checklist offers provenance and ownership references for the others, some of which may be viewed and assessed independently in collections. Of course, and as expected, we hear of more Claggett clocks now emerging since the book’s publication, continuing the happy process of discovery reported by the authors.
One important clock by William Claggett, WC-44 in the Checklist, is not available for inspection or highlighted in the book. Recorded in older inventories but later lost, it was only recently rediscovered in the remnants of the James Arthur Collection that remain at New York University. This reviewer has a special interest in the Arthur Collection and reported the clock’s whereabouts to the authors too late for its current whereabouts to be included in the Checklist. In the early 1980s NYU’s large horological collection mostly was dispersed to the Smithsonian and the NAWCC -museum when the school acknowledged that it would never fulfill the donor’s -wishes, albeit supported by a large endowment, to adequately and permanently display the watches and clocks he bequeathed to it in the 1920s. This tall clock, purchased for the collection some years after Arthur’s death in 1930, was viewed briefly in 2017 in a storage area, but it then was headed for deeper crated storage indefinitely. Its arched dial features both a “penny moon” aperture and the rare form of a tide indicator unique to William Claggett and known in just a few other examples by the maker.
The book’s featured selections indicate the authors’ emphasis on the clocks’ aesthetics, appearance, and wood case attributes rather than on technical aspects of the mechanical movements. Cases are closely described with many details on woods, feet, finials, doors, pediments, sidelights, colonnettes, bases, and even movement seat boards. A commonly held belief is that the “furniture” aspects of clocks contribute most to their appeal and value, so the authors, as in their previous books, are seeking a broader audience than the relatively small world of clock lovers who are focused more on movement characteristics, innovations, and complications.
This raises an interesting, and perhaps a contradictory, issue. What is a Claggett or Wady clock? If most attention is paid to the ornate mahogany, walnut, or japanned pine cases built by different craftsmen, including Newport’s famed Townsend-Goddard shop, why credit the name on the dial? Perhaps just as controversial, what if the movements themselves were made mostly of imported English parts, or entirely English? There is extensive evidence of this for many colonial American clocks, including the lauded tall clocks signed by the Willard brothers and sons of Massachusetts.
Robert C. Cheney, the executive director of the Willard House & Clock Museum and an acknowledged expert on American clocks of this period, assisted and advised the book’s authors during their research. In articles and lectures, he regularly makes a compelling case for the strong English connections. He focuses on the various components of a movement’s striking system, noting that if an American clockmaker produced them for his own clocks, why are so many of them unlike each other in clocks from roughly the same time? These shaped steel and brass parts can be examined only by removing a clock’s dial, and Cheney told this reviewer that he regrets that the book’s dozens of top-quality photographs include only two such views (p. 52). Readers see many clear side views of movements, but these reveal little about geared machines that were relatively standard and similar. Most likely, both public and private owners of these valuable clocks were unwilling to permit the removal of hands and dials for such photography, but readers have missed an opportunity to gain this additional information, which could assist in future scholarship as well as in vetting and authenticating Claggett’s and Wady’s output.
The engraved brass dials do appear solely to be the work of their signers and are well illustrated and described in the book. These boast skillful numbering, lettering, and elaborate embellishments, as well as fancy applied cast brass elements. The engraving by William Claggett is the most praiseworthy, and that skill was recognized when he was employed to produce plates for local paper currency that deterred counterfeiters. Interestingly, some original engraved copper plates for these bills of credit still exist, wonderful for scholars but surprising for the concept of strictly controlling the printing and supply of paper money.
While Wady and the Claggetts were makers of clocks, probably more important to them was their repair work, which would have provided substantial income. Newport certainly had many more timepieces than theirs, all of which needed regular servicing due to dusty, damp, and smoky conditions as well as because of accidents and rough handling. Sadly, none of their ledgers have been found, so their repair work is not documented in the book. In contrast, we know much about the Dominy clockmakers on Long Island, whose records at Winterthur show that Nathaniel Dominy in the 1790s repaired William Claggett’s clock shown as number 9 in the book’s catalogue. Number 14 was repaired in Boston by Simon Willard and Elnathan Taber. Both facts exemplify the kinds of details that the book’s catalogue offers when available.
Catalogue number 27 has an even better story, although not told in the book. Other sources reveal that in 1977, this mid-eighteenth-century Thomas Claggett tall clock was stolen from the Jamestown, Rhode Island, homestead of the Carr family, the original owners. Thirty-three years later, in 2010, it appeared for sale on eBay by a seller in Mississippi. The details of its return are sad, complicated, and a cautionary tale of dealing with insurance companies and law enforcement, but happily the clock now is back in its corner of the Carr living room.
There is much else in the book beyond clockmaking and clocks. The eighteenth-century history of Newport, its early growth and boom and then rapid decline during our revolutionary war, is well explored as relevant to why the Claggetts settled and worked there. Newport was a flourishing port for European and Caribbean trade, providing access to imported goods (including clocks and clock components). William was born in England, educated and well-trained there, although his name is not listed in the London clockmakers guild. He arrived in Boston before 1715 but soon moved to Newport in December 1716 for better financial opportunities and escape from religious strictures. William was married in Boston in 1714 by Cotton Mather but joined Newport’s Baptist church upon arrival in that town. James Franklin moved his printing business there from Boston, too, but there is no evidence that William ever met the more famous brother Benjamin, who visited James there at least twice.
There is more human interest material. William worked with his father as a baker, constructed a static electricity machine that he demonstrated for pay in Boston, was in court sixty-two recorded times over money disputes, and published his lengthy diatribe criticizing two leaders of his church. -Until new research was uncovered for this book, Thomas Claggett was universally claimed as the son of William. Now it is unclear if Thomas even was a relative, although likely. His output was much smaller, and he died insane and impoverished not long after William’s demise. James Wady, also a clockmaker from England where he went bankrupt, came to Newport and married William’s daughter. Mostly he worked as a journeyman for his father-in-law, as well as a “back sword” instructor, and died a pauper.
Returning to our debt to the scholarship of Richard Champlin, gratitude also is due Edward Kane, who is the first to be thanked in the new book’s acknowledgments for his advocacy, research, and funding generosity. This reviewer learned that, along with dealer Gary Sullivan, Kane tracked down many clocks known only from Champlin’s inventory and from old lists— including one compiled in 1913 by Luke Vincent Lockwood—and from ads, auction records, and books. Sullivan related to us how a good source for him was clock repairers who willingly informed him about clients’ Claggetts; fellow antiques dealers were much less forthcoming, perhaps protecting -future purchasing opportunities.
We were told by Edward Kane that he located a large trove of Champlin’s private research materials in the home of a Champlin nephew in northern Maine. Kane purchased, retrieved, and donated those papers to the Redwood Library, where it seemed the uncle intended them to go. A multi-page guide to the documents is on the library’s website, and Patricia Kane’s department at Yale recently completed their digitization. Perhaps further study of these papers will reveal more about an actual son and grandson of William, also named William, suggested by Champlin as having followed in the clockmaking trade.
Don Fennimore informed us that the newer trove of files he amassed for this book will be turned over to the Winterthur Library for the benefit of future researchers.
Fortunately for those of us who still appreciate clocks and furniture from pre-Revolution North America, another Hohmann and Fennimore book is underway. Absent the scholarly and financial commitment that the authors continue to demonstrate, these kinds of reference books never would appear, given both today’s decreased interest in that era’s material culture and current publishers’ disinterest in offering serious printed books on such subjects. The forthcoming book will focus on brothers David and Benjamin Rittenhouse of eighteenth-century Philadelphia and promises to shine the same intense beam of scholarly light on two other distinguished American makers of significant clocks and fine scientific instruments.
Bob Frishman
Bell-Time Clocks, Andover, Massachusetts