The David Rittenhouse Federal Inlaid and Figured Mahogany and Walnut Tall Case Clock, Case made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Works probably of English origin, Circa 1800

After his death in 1796 and his wife Hanna’s (Jacobs) (1736-1799) subsequent death in 1799, the house and contents including this clock were sold by the Rittenhouse family to Captain William Davis;

To his daughter, Martha Davis Clark who lived at the house;

To her son, Ephraim Clark who lived at the house;

To his son, Charles Davis Clark;

To his daughters, Frances and Bertha Clark, the latter of 1811 Delancey Place in Philadelphia;

Sold to Joseph Kindig, Jr. in 1948.

Howard C. Rice, Jr., The Rittenhouse Orrery, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1954), pl. IX;

Michael Blow, Men of Science and Invention: American Heritage Junior Library, (American Heritage Publishing, 1960), p. 34;

Barry Love, “The Miniature Solar Systems of David Rittenhouse,” The Smithsonian Journal of History, vol. 3, no. 4 (Winter 1968-1969), fig. 6, p. 9;

Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art, (Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976), pp. 162-3, no. 132.

With its musical movement and orrery set within an elaborate Federal style case, this tall case clock represents an extremely rare and unusual form. It was originally owned by David Rittenhouse (1732-1796), one of America’s greatest clockmakers and also an astronomer, mathematician and surveyor. During his lifetime, he built two orreries and more than seventy-five clocks, some containing planetariums, numerous surveying instruments, telescopes, and quadrants. This clock stood in his house built in 1786-1787 by Joseph Ogilby at 701 Arch Street in Philadelphia and appears in a 19^th century drawing of the library of the house (see Kindig file). After David Rittenhouse’s death in 1796 and his wife Hannah’s (1736-1799) death in 1799, the house and contents including this clock were sold to Captain William Davis of Philadelphia. According to a letter written on May 10, 1948 by his great-great-granddaughter, Bertha Clark of 1811 Delancey Place, this clock had “always been in the possession of our family since my great great grandfather Capt. Wm. Davis purchased David Rittenhouse’s house at 7^th and Arch … My great grandmother Martha Davis Clark lived with the clock till the time of her death when her son Ephraim Clark (with whom she lived) inherited it. My father Charles Davis Clark was a member of the household living with his grandmother at the time of her death. My grandfather Ephraim Clark in time left it to my father Charles Davis Clark from whom my sister Frances and I inherited it.” Ephraim Clark bequeathed this clock in his will dated October 7, 1885 stating: “I give and bequeath unto my son Charles Davis Clark my large clock formerly belonging to David Rittenhouse” (see copy of will in Kindig file). The clock remained in the Clark family until Frances and Bertha Clark sold it to Joseph Kindig, Jr. in 1948.

This clock displays a musical movement that was likely made in England. It has an orrery set within the door of the case which contains a planetarium showing the annual motions of the planets around the sun. It also displays a mechanism on the upper dial which indicates the ebb and flow of the tides. The movement and orrery are housed in a Federal style case that is American and likely made in Philadelphia to accommodate the present combination of two movements. In 2015, the movement was analyzed by Jeffrey Lock of Colonial Instruments who provided a report dated November 5, 2015 (see Kindig file). He notes that the movement plates are not typical of those made by David Rittenhouse and nor is the gearing in the orrery mechanism. The orrery contains six planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – the number of known planets in 1773. The outer edges of the opening for the shutter that indicates the time of sunrise and sunset is calibrated to indicate the angle of the earth’s tilt with respect to the sun. These calibrations indicate the dial of this clock was designed for N 52 degrees, which places it around the latitude of Greenwich, England, further substantiating the English origin for the movement.

Two tall case clocks made by David Rittenhouse with musical movements and orreries are known. One was purchased by Thomas Prior in 1774, a prominent member of the American Philosophical Society. It was later purchased by George W. Childs in 1879 and presented by his widow to the Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel University) in 1894 (accession number 49). The other tall case clock was loaned to Pennsylvania hospital in 1819 by Sarah Zane, who later bequeathed it to the institution in 1870. An orrery built by David Rittenhouse in 1770-71 for the College of Philadelphia remains on view in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania.