Footnotes

• Reuben Tower (1795 – 1881) whose surviving work includes tall clocks, Willard patent timepieces and shelf clocks in addition to dwarf clocks such as the present example resided in Kingston between 1822 and 1825. (see: Paul J. Foley, Willard's Patent Timepieces, pp 321-322.) He was apprenticed to Joshua Wilder, a prolific maker of dwarf clocks, whose daughter he married.
  
  Dwarf clocks are the subject of a recent study by Gary Sullivan. ( in Brock et al. Harbor & Home, Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, Hanover, 2009). Produced in a narrowly defined geographic area, they appear to have been made to answer the demand for a less expensive alternative to the tall clock. They flourished briefly, only to be supplanted by even less expensive mass produced shelf clocks. They are found in two styles: within a bell top case and within a mahogany case on French feet with pierced fretwork above the hood that resembles a miniature Roxbury tall case.
  
  All of the latter bear a passing resemblance to one another. The cases were made chiefly by Abiel White (1766-1844) and Henry Willard (1802 -1887). The present clock is attributed to Willard based on published examples which characteristically have a diamond shaped array of holes in the side of the hood and an applied bead molding on the base above the feet. A nearly identical fret is found on a Willard case for a Joshua Wilder dwarf clock in the collection of Old Sturbridge Village. (see: Philip Zea and Robert Cheney, Clock Making in New England, 1725 – 1825, Sturbridge, 1992)
  

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Category: Clocks and Watches / Clocks

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