Description
Eli Terry pillar & scroll, ca. 1822. Terry developed the pillar & scroll clock with the standard five-wheel train movement about 1822. He formed a partnership with his sons Eli Jr. and Henry in 1823, so there weren’t a lot of these 5-wheel clocks made with just Eli Terry’s name. The case is 32.5 inches tall (measurement includes the brass urn finial); note that the dimensions of this clock differ from later pillar & scrolls: here the door measures 22.125 inches tall by 13.125 inches wide, while on #6, a later Eli Terry P&S, the door measures 20.75 inches tall and 13 inches wide. This difference is evident in the photo below. There are some repairs to the mahogany veneer on the door crossbar; this clock has a turn-latch on the door rather than the more common ivory escutcheon and key. The scroll-top shows no evidence of repair from the front, with seams at the tips from the back; it is possible that the veneer was replaced long ago. The feet and skirt look original. The brass urn finials mount on wooden posts and are the correct style for Terry. The dial glass is modern, held in place with wooden strips; the lower glass is period, also held in place with wooden strips and a very nicely repainted tablet. The wooden dial is clean with some fading to the numerals, and it bears a gilded and painted eagle above the mainstem and typical of Eli Terry clocks; note also the painted spandrels. The hands are period and proper but probably not original. The 30-hour time-and-strike wooden movement is running and striking on an iron bell. There is an old pendulum bob and two period weights. The label is the very early type used briefly in Terry’s first 5-wheel clocks (Roberts & Taylor, Eli Terry and the Connecticut Shelf Clock, pages 104-105). I have sold two other Eli Terry clocks with this label in 2020 ($986) and 2025 ($1700). A very nice example of a rare clock by the most famous maker of the period. $750-$1500.
Record courtesy of AntiqueAmericanClocks.com