Read and Watson Tall Case Clock,
cherry with cherry secondary. Broken arch pediment with inlaid rosettes and 3 replaced bulbous finials, center supported by a recently added applied V-shaped drop. Hood has very fine turned, free-standing front columns and original glass. Waist and base have canted corners with lamb's tongues top and bottom. Waist door has double-cyma curved top, edged with burled walnut inlay, and has large elliptical inlay of crotch cherry at center. Thumb-molded waist molding sits atop a panelled base with straight French feet underneath another burled walnut inlay strip. Original polychrome and gilt wooden dial signed, Read & Watson (prior to the partnership in Cincinnati ca 1810-1816). Face has gilt decorated spandrels, and dial arch has American shield and eagle flanked by flower sprays. Movement seat board for the 30-hour wooden movement stamped OR 4 times (for Orascus or Oliver Roberts, who also worked for Luman Watson). Pencil inscriptions on back of dial read, Sam Wallens 1861 and Bought by Erskin R. Hayes Oct 1909. Pencil inscription on inside of door reads, James Kelly Belfast, Oh 1860 Clermont Co Jan 5th. Also inside case are attached notes, one of which is address of a previous owner (another member of the Hayes family), another is a Wilmington, OH auction announcement that includes this clock, and the third is a wonderful and unquestioningly apocryphal story that dates this clock to the mid-eighteenth century and claims the original lead weights were used to make bullets during the American Revolution. Story does associate the clock with Hayes family, having been owned by them in Blanchester, Ohio. For a nearly identical example, see James W. Gibbs, Buckey Horology, page 15. A truly beautiful Ohio clock. 94" high x 18.25" wide x 9.25" deep.Ex Paul A. Heffner Collection.Left arch broken and reattached, and a nice old refinish; else VG.
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