Rare Federal Inlaid Tall Case Clock With Works By Elnathan Taber

Face Painted By John Minott/ Roxbury/ And Numbered 193
Roxbury, Massachusetts, Circa 1793.

Provenance: Joseph Vose, Milton, Massachusetts. Vose was a colonel in the first regiment, and participated in the Revolutionary War. He was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati.

Reference: John Minott is listed as clock dial painter, and is known to have made faces for Simon Willard in the early 1790's, see Roger Robinson and H. Burt, The Willard House and Clock Museum, Tall Clocks, number 14 and 16. (1768 - 1854) worked in Roxbury, and Simon Willard considered him to be his finest apprentice. For a discussion of Elnathan Taber (1768-1854) please see Philip Zea and Robert Cheney, Clock Making in New England: 1725-1825, An Interpretation of the Old Sturbridge Village Collection, pages 66-69. Other cases with the notched corners on the door and inlay attached to the case exist including one stamped by Stephen Badlam which houses an Aaron Willard movement, see Robinson and Burt, The Willard House and Clock Museum and the Willard Family of Clock Makers, pages 88-90. See also a Simon Willard clock in the same book pages 57-59.

Photograph © Bruce M. White