Timekeeping in Maryland

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2004 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

One of this country's most elegant Federal houses is Homewood, built in Baltimore by Charles Carroll of Carrollton for his dissolute son Charles Carroll Jr. in the early years of the nineteenth century. George Washington called the elder Carroll "the most monied man" in America, and Homewood was expensive to build in its own day. Unfortunately, very few of the original furnishings survive.

Recently Catherine Rogers Arthur, the curator of Homewood, became intrigued by frustratingly sketchy references to a watch and a clock appraised at ten and twenty dollars respectively in the younger Carroll's probate inventory, and she began to research what sort of timekeeping devices might have been at Homewood at the time. The results of her findings have formed the basis for a small exhibition and accompanying catalogue entitled Clock and Watchmaking in Early Maryland, of which she is the curator. The show includes more than twenty tall-case clocks, pocket watches, and mantel clocks, and is on view from September 10 through November 28 at Homewood. The timepieces were made or owned in Baltimore, on the Eastern Shore, in Annapolis, and in the western part of the state, and illustrate the range available to consumers in Maryland.

Arthur looked into the inventories of other affluent citizens in the region and searched for extant timepieces with a reliable history of being made or owned in the state in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. She found a remarkable mantel clock (illustrated below) made in France that could be traced to Hampton, the residence of Governor Charles Ridgely in Towson. The clock, in the form of a sunflower, has a pendulum shaped like a butterfly.

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Arthur also studied the commercial ties between clockmakers, watchmakers, and cabinet-makers, since tall-case clocks were a collaborative effort. However, while many of the dials are signed, the makers of the cases are frequently unknown. Two examples with cases attributed to Levin S. Tarr and James Neale are included in the exhibition. Also confounding the picture is the fact that many clock- and watch-makers supplemented their income by making silver and jewelry or importing goods. A case in point is Gilbert Bigger, who is listed in Baltimore directories as a watch- and clockmaker. His advertisements offered imported objects for sale, including jewelry. A silver spoon and a tall-case clock bearing his mark are on view in this exhibition.

The catalogue of the exhibition, written by Arthur, may be obtained by telephoning Homewood House Museum at 410-516-5589.