Rare Chippendale Carved Walnut Case Clock, case attributed to Adam Ault (1768-1848), works possibly by George Hoff Sr. (1733-1816), Hanover, Pennsylvania, Circa 1790

Clock reportedly came from a Baltimore family and then stood for many years in a Baltimore bank;

William Fehsenfeld, English Shop, Baltimore, Maryland.

The case of this clock can be attributed to Adam Ault (1768-1848) of Hanover, Pennsylvania. A clock case, labeled by Ault, is in the collection of the Maryland Center for History and Culture has identical features including the walnut veneer on the door, shape of the swan’s neck crest and size and layout of the tympanum below the swan’s neck, with projecting middle finial support, Corinthian hood-column capitals, and door-shaping.¹

This clock's 8-day, quarter-chiming works have lantern pinions, a Germanic tradition, which appear only in Hoff-related clocks from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The pendulum bob has scratched on its lead back Peter Little. Peter Little (1775-1830) was a Baltimore clock and watchmaker between 1799-1814.²

Edward LaFond, in 1996, assessed the clocks works and stated the following. "In my opinion, after having completely disassembled, cleaned, polished and restrung this interesting clock, the quarter-hour 8-day movement behind the dial of this clock was made in Lancaster ca. 1766-70 by George Hoff, Sr. (born in Germany 1733, died in Lancaster 1816). I also believe the clock and the three marked lead weights were made not too long after Hoff arrived in this country (Aug. 24, 1765), for it contains several features I have only seen on very early clocks by him:

1. Lead weights of lighter than standard weight (12-14 lbs are normal for 8-day movements). By 1770-75 the Iron industry in Pennsylvania was turning out cast iron clock weights of all sizes.

2. Small, highly polished pivots which require less driving weight. Soon Hoff began using larger pivots and spending less time on the refinements (at least on his regular 30-hour and 8-day clocks).

3. Outside (back plate) strike hammer spring with separate steel hammer stop rarely encountered on later Hoff clocks. (Note: p. 192 Stacy Wood’s book on Lancaster Clocks)

4. Recessed ratchets on winding drums and great wheels that are heavier than those later encountered on Hoff clocks.

It is my opinion that this quarter-hour chiming clock had a smaller brass dial either with engraved spandrels or more likely a cast and engraved chapter ring on the order of dials 3-44, 3-45 and 3-46 on pages 113-115 of Stacy Wood’s book.

Somehow the clock found its way into a Hanover clockmaker’s shop ca. 1790-95. From the hands I would guess either Jacob Hostetter or George Long, as they both used this type of hand design and both of their clocks are known in Adam Ault’s cases. Stated simply, a very fine clock was recycled with a new imported dial and re-cased by the best cabinetmaker working in Hanover.

Peter Little was probably just the factor in Baltimore who sold the clock retail and warranted it to run. [Or had it re-cased directly up the road from Baltimore in Hanover.]

Even if the clock was sold in Hanover originally, the reason the local clockmaker did not sign the dial was simply not his work.

Further evidence, in my opinion, that this dial is not the original is that there is no seconds dial, yet the clockmaker (Hoff) had extended his escape wheel arbor forward to receive the second hand pipe. Hoff often made 8-day clocks without seconds dials (a rare exclusion on most other clockmaker’s 8-day clocks), but when he chose to eliminate the seconds feature, he always trimmed off the seconds (front escape wheel) arbor.

In summary we have a very important clock, which like all clocks of this time was a marriage of at least two crafts: metalworker, woodworker and painter. However, in this instance a new twist has been added: recycling. The average life span of a well made and well cared for clock is 500 years plus or minus a century. The original craftsmen and most of their clients knew this. These were products made for generations of use. This clock cost perhaps more than a year’s profits from a large productive farm or the major profit for a well-to-do merchant. Nothing was wasted that represented so much investment. The clock probably took George Hoff a month or more to build. It was wisely reused. For what reasons a Lancaster clock of ca. 1770 found its way to Hanover then to Baltimore (there is an ink signature of “J.W.” (which stands for Jacob Walter, a late 18th century/early 19th century Baltimore clockmaker who had a habit of marking his repair dated in ink under the bell), is at present unknown. This clock is proof of the movement of goods in the new vital nation, United States of America."

¹ Gregory R. Weidman, Furniture In Maryland 1740–1940 (Baltimore, Maryland Historical Society, 1984), 58–59. For biographical information on Ault, see Raymond J. Brunner, That Ingenious Business—Pennsylvania German Organ Builders (Birdsboro, PA, The Pennsylvania German Society, 1990), pp. 154–155.

² James Biser Whisker, Daniel David Hartzler and Steven P. Petrucelli, Maryland Clockmakers, (Cranbury, NJ: Adams Brown Company, Inc., 1996), pp. 60-1.