Lot 59
59
A CHIPPENDALE STAINED WOOD TALL-CASE CLOCK
A CHIPPENDALE STAINED WOOD TALL-CASE CLOCK

DIAL SIGNED BY CHARLES F. BECKEL, BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA, 1826-1830

Details
A CHIPPENDALE STAINED WOOD TALL-CASE CLOCK
Dial signed by Charles F. Beckel, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1826-1830
The broken swan's neck pediment with carved rosettes centered by a ball-and-steeple turned finial on a fluted plinth and flanked by similar paired finials above an arched glazed door opening to a white-painted dial face with Arabic chapter rings, seconds dial and calender aperture centering "C.F. Beckel/Bethlehem" enclosed by painted and gilded cornucopia spandrels and surmounted by a painted moon face dial, all enclosed by freestanding colonettes over a waisted case fitted with a thumbmolded arched door flanked by fluted quarter columns above a box-base with similar quarter colmuns, on a molded base, missing feet and base replaced
98in. high, 23in. wide, 11in. deep

Lot Essay

Trained under John Samuel Krause and Jedediah Weiss, Charles F. Beckel began his own clockmaking business in Bethlehem in 1826. His apprentice, Henry D. Bishop, took over the business in 1830, when Beckel started an iron foundry (George H. Eckhardt, Pennsylvania Clocks and Clockmakers, New York, 1955, p. 206).