A Federal Mahogany and Églomisé Paneled Wall Clock, works by David Brown, Providence, Rhode Island, circa 1815

Standing just 20 ½” tall and housed in an elaborate case with finials and its original eglomise panel, this miniature wall clock represents an extremely unusual form. It is illustrated as “best” in Fine Points of Furniture by Albert Sack, who noted that it is “a unique clock of great rarity and desirability” with a “painted glass panel that depicts Justice holding the shield bearing the coat of arms of the newly formed United States.”

The movement in inscribed by David Brown (1781-1868), a watchmaker working in Rhode Island. In 1897, the following excerpt on this clockmaker was published in The New England States, their Constitutional, Judicial, Education, Commercial, Profession, and Industrial History, Volume 4, pp. 2530-40 by D. H. Hurd & Co. of Boston: “David Brown was born in 1781 in Attleboro, then a part of Rhode Island. At the age of fourteen, with but a slight education, he left home to become a tavern-boy at Seekonk, Massachusetts where he remained a year or two, and then entered the store of Nehemiah Dodge, in Providence, to learn the trade of a jeweler, serving a full time apprenticeship. His natural taste for mechanics led him to learn the trade of watch and clockmaking from Mr. Payton Dana, with whom he remained until about 1802, when he was employed by Obed Robinson to organize and put in operation an establishment for the manufacture of plated jewelry in Attleboro. Two years later he went to Warren, R.I. and established himself as a manufacturer and dealer in clocks, watches, jewelry, and especially silver-ware. In 1809, he married Miss Patience Rogers. Soon there came a depression in his business, with the necessity of mortgaging his home. He had invented a grinding machine, propelled by foot; this he now put on wheels, packed his silver-ware upon it, and went through the valley of Connecticut, grinding fine cutlery, and selling his goods. This venture was so successful that he continued it for two or three years and extended his trips farther south, thus clearing himself from debt. In 1828, he sold his property in Warren and moved to Pawtucket, where he continued the same line of business. In 1833, he formed a co-partnership with his son, Joseph R. Brown and they founded in Providence the enterprise known as the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company. This, when first started, was mainly devoted to the manufacture and repairing of watches and clocks, and surveying and mathematical instruments. David Brown retired in 1841, when he removed to Bureau County, Illinois, to establish a younger son on a large tract of land which he had there purchased. In 1856, he returned to Pawtucket, where he built a residence for his daughter. In the rear of this house, he fitted up a shop, in which he worked until his death in 1868 at the advanced age of eight-seven years and five months. In the course of his long and laborious career he made several useful inventions among which were improvements on the mechanism of clocks and a machine for winding twine-balls.”¹

¹ This excerpt is in the object file for the present lot. It was sent in a letter dated April 17, 1947 to Mr. John J. Bowman, Director of The Bowman Technical School in Lancaster Pennsylvania from Henry Sharpe, President of Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company. The letter was a response to an inquiry from John Bowman about the early history of Joseph R. Brown.