Tall Case Clock Maker: Ezra Kelley (American, 1798–1895)
Maker: Nathaniel Shepherd (American, 1795–1882)

1822

American Decorative Arts

By appointment, Hume Furniture Study
Medium

Mahogany, cherry, and white pine

Dimensions

93 3/4 × 22 × 10 1/4 in. (238.1 × 55.9 × 26 cm)
other (Lower case): 60 3/4 × 20 7/16 × 9 5/8 in. (154.3 × 51.9 × 24.4 cm)
other (lower case frame): 15 1/8 × 7 in. (38.4 × 17.8 cm)

Credit Line

Bequest of Josephine D. Thacher in memory of her husband, Raymond Leonard Thacher

Accession Number

1964.54.2

Geography

Made in Dartmouth, Massachusetts

Culture

American

Period

19th century

Classification

Timepieces

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Matthew Thacher (c. 1810); by descent to Harriet S. Thacher, Danvers, Massachusetts; by descent to Raymond L. Thacher, New Haven, Conn.; by descent to his wife, Josephine Thacher, New Haven, Conn.; gift in 1964 to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Brock Jobe, Gary R. Sullivan, and Jack O'Brien, Harbor and Home: Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, 1710–1850 (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2009), 283–85, pl. 95.2–95.3, ill
  • Edwin A. Battison and Patricia E. Kane, The American Clock, 1725–1865: The Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1973), 82–85, no. 16, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

tall case clocks

Marks

"Warranted by Kelley & Shepherd / Dartmouth / Ms" painted on dial

Inscriptions

"There was a man who had a clock, / His name was Matthew Mears; / He wound it r[illegible]lar every day / For four and twenty years. / At last his precious timepiece proved / An eight-day clock to be. / And a madder man than Mr. Mears / You'd never wish to see.," printed in black ink, on paper, glued to interior backboard

Signed

Kelley and Shepherd, works by

Technical metadata and APIs

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