America’s earliest significant horological contribution is credited to Simon Willard (1753–1848), who, attempting to produce a substitute for the eight-day tall-case clock, developed a new movement and corresponding case. In 1802 he registered his “patent timepiece,” popularly known today as a banjo clock. The Bayou Bend example is considered to be a presentation model. The bottom glass is painted appropriately with a representation of Aurora, the goddess of morning, being spirited away as the sun rises from behind.

Technical notes: Gilded eastern white pine (acorn pendant, concave support for lower case), basswood (horizontal spacer), mahogany (sides of lower case), cherry. Filister head screws hold the back plate of the recoil escapement movement to the case’s backboard. The inside cut of the head is elliptical. This clock was originally outfitted with an alarm, which has since been removed. On the dial is painted: “Aaron Willard/Boston.”

Related examples: Sack 1969–92, vol. 1, p. 285, no. 704; Sack 1969–92, vol. 2, p. 453, no. 1127; Sack 1969–92, vol. 3, p. 770, no. P3323; Greenlaw 1974, pp. 99–100, no. 85; Sack 1969–92, vol. 7, pp. 1930–31, no. P5276; Levy Gallery 1988b, p. 204.

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.