Tall Clock
Movement by George Woltz
Hagerstown, Maryland, 1795-1805
Black walnut with yellow pine, tulip poplar, oak, and holly
Gift of Perry Van Vleck
Catalog no. 174

The movement in this clock was made by George Woltz. Of Swiss-German extraction, Woltz was born in York, Pennsylvania, but later settled at Hagerstown in western Maryland. Woltz's clock movement represents northern European craft traditions. By contrast, the black walnut case echoes the British neat and plain furniture widely popular in the coastal and Piedmont South. Several of its elements were directly inspired by clock cases from the coastal cities that traded with Hagerstown. The broken-scroll pediment with horizontal base and central finial follows a British-inspired form popular in Baltimore and Philadelphia. The richly colored panel of inlaid foliage on the trunk door was probably imported from Baltimore.