.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Noted to be "Simon Willard's best apprentice," Elnathan Taber (1768-1854) established his own business in 1789 in Roxbury, Massachusetts where he worked for the rest of his life (John Ware Willard, Simon Willard and His Clocks (New York, 1968), p. 106; Paul J. Foley, Willard's Patent Time Pieces (Norwell, 2002), p. 317). This clock is distinguished for having Taber's own handwritten instructions, "Directions for setting up a Clock." A virtually identical handwritten label also appears on a tall-case clock by Taber in the collection of Old Sturbridge Village (acc. no. 57.1.2). Ornamental painter James Minott (1772-1826) is known to have worked with Taber and with floral and gilded-border spandrels, the paintwork on the dial on the clock offered here may represent the work of this craftsman (Foley, p. 284; for a tall-case clock with works by Taber, dial signed by Minott and case attributed to cabinetmaker Stephen Badlam (1851-1815), see Skinner, Boston, 2 June 2012, lot 391). This clock was acquired from Herschel B. Burt (1927-2000), a noted authority on early American clocks and a former trustee of the Willard House Clock Museum in Grafton, Massachusetts.