A Very Rare Chippendale Carved Cherrywood Tall-Case Clock, works by Christian Eby, Manheim, Pennsylvania, Circa 1795-1805

Drs. Jane Smiley and Carroll F. Burgoon, Jr., Chester Springs, Pennsylvania;

Sotheby's New York, Important Americana, January 24, 2009, Sale 8512, lot 229.

This clock stands as one of the most elaborate tall-case clocks from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It has survived in a remarkable state of preservation and retains its original finials, rosettes, tympanum carving and ogee feet .

The dial is signed by Christian Eby, who worked as a clockmaker in Manheim, Pennsylvania from 1793 until his death in 1803 on the west side of Prussian Street, north of the market square.¹ He may have worked for a time with Samuel C. Stauffer, for their movements are very similar. Eby's estate inventory dated November 9, 1803 includes three clockmaker's turning lathes, 10 1/2 sets of clock weights, 1 engine, 30-hour clocks, one 8-day clock, 1 setting compass, one stock clock unfinished, one lot of engraving tools, watch supplies, and one clockmaker's sign. He may have painted and signed his own clock dials, for his inventory also lists three painting books, one lot of painting bottles, pots, chairs and paints, one lot of painting pencils and picture, one painting table with three drawers, and three "Clock faces not finished."² His younger brother, Jacob Eby, worked as a clockmaker in Manheim from 1803 through 1828 and apparently made similar movements.³

With a Philadelphia influenced design interpreted by a local shop with roots in Germanic craft traditions, the case of this clock is among the finest achievements of Lancaster County cabinetmaking in the Rococo style. The high relief carving is masterfully rendered from the flames finials, to the floral rosettes with twelve points, tympanum with a large sunflower flanked by symmetrical vines, blind fretwork, and bold ogee feet. The tympanum incorporates paired swags of bellflowers into its design, marking the transition from the Rococo to the Neo Classical style in Lancaster County furniture.

Closely comparable carving is exhibited on a Christian Eby tall case clock in the collection of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in Washington, D.C. The latter displays a very similar though more simplified scheme of a carved sunflower flanked by symmetrical vines below flowerhead rosettes and flame finials. Relief carving incorporating prominent sunflowers is found on two other tall-case clocks housing works by John Heinselman, a clockmaker working in Manheim from circa 1790 until his death in 1804. One owned by the York Bank and Trust Company is illustrated in John Snyder, "The Bachman attributions: a reconsideration," The Magazine Antiques, May 1974, figs. 7 and 7a, p. 1060. The second example is in the collection of the Heritage Center Museum in Lancaster.

This distinctive carving is also found on a diminutive chest that may have been originally owned by Samuel Ensminger (1763-1840) of Manheim. It sold in these rooms, May 19, 2005, sale 8097, lot 249. In the cataloguing for that lot, John Snyder wrote that much of the Rococo carved furniture made in Manheim during the late eighteenth century was very likely constructed in and sold by the shop of Emanuel Deyer (1760-1836) while another shop, possibly that of the Bretz family, may have executed the skilled, specialized carvings. Snyder noted several other closely related examples of casework with Manheim carving of this type, including four desk-and-bookcases, four slant-front desks, one corner cupboard, one tea table, and possibly one dressing table.⁴

¹ Stacy B. C. Wood, Jr. and Stephen E. Kramer III, Clockmakers of Lancaster County and Their Clocks, New York, 1977.

² Stacy B. C. Wood, Jr. Clockmakers and Watchmakers of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Lancaster, 1995, p. 33.

³ Ibid. For examples of Jacob Eby's clocks, see one at the Hershey Museum of American Life and one in the collection of Winterthur Museum illustrated in Wood and Kramer, figs. 2-39 and 2-40, respectively. See also fig. 4-32.

⁴ See G. W. Scott Jr., "Lancaster and other Pennsylvania furniture," The Magazine Antiques (May 1979): pls. IV, V, and VI. Many of these pieces are also illustrated in John Snyder, "The Bachman attributions: a reconsideration," The Magazine Antiques (May 1974).