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Lot Essay
Emblazoned with an array of exquisitely rendered inlaid ornament, this tall-case clock is a masterpiece of the Federal aesthetic. Its urbane design and high quality workmanship reflect the sophistication of its attributed makers, Robert Wood and James S. or Jacob Taylor, cabinetmakers who worked separately in New York City during the early nineteenth century before establishing a partnership in rural Orange County in about 1810. In the Federal Census of that year, a Robert Wood and a James S. Taylor are listed in Goshen and Warwick respectively; both towns are approximately six miles from Florida. It is also possible that the second partner was Jacob Taylor, who is listed in Goshen in the 1820 census. All three are listed as cabinetmakers in the New York City directories at various times earlier in the century (John L. Scherer, New York Furniture at the New York State Museum (Alexandria, VA, 1983), pp. 36-37). During their collaboration in Orange County, it is likely that they maintained ties with allied craftsmen in New York City. Their inlaid ornament was probably supplied by a specialist from the City, as was the she-oak used for the astragal reserves. Part of the Casuarina family, she-oak was an exotic wood from Australia that was imported into American cities along the eastern seaboard (Robert D. Mussey, Jr., The Furniture Masterworks of John & Thomas Seymour (Salem, MA, 2003), p. 46).
Based upon a case with a paper label reading Wood & Taylor Cabinetmakers Florida (fig. 1), the Blair Collection clock case and at least three others can be attributed to the same woodworking shop. All display highly arched and star-inlaid pediments, case doors with distinctive crests with flattened arches, quarter columns and a similar configuration of border stringing. The Blair Collection clock is most closely related to a case at Winterthur Museum (fig. 2); both are more extensively inlaid, with twenty stars in the tympanum, a frieze of bookend and astragal reserves above the door and circular and oval reserves within the rectilinear case divisions. Like the Blair Collection example, one other clock bears the initials of its first owner in the bonnet rosettes (Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., Fine Americana, April 30-May 3, 1980, lot 1387; another clock sold Christie's New York, January 18-19, 2002, lot 397).
The clock was purchased by Mrs. Blair in 1926 from C.W. Fancher, the proprietor of Fancher's Colonial Shop in Goshen, New York. According to Fancher, the "SJ" initials in the clock's bonnet stand for Samuel Johnson, a relative of Fancher's who was one of the directors of the National Bank of Orange County, founded in 1812. Johnson resided on the outskirts of Goshen at Johnson's Corner in a house known in 1898 as the Pelaby House. Though his relationship to Samuel Johnson has not been determined, Fancher was undoubtedly Clinton Wheeler Fancher, who was born in 1865 in Warwick, New York, the son of Darius (1836-1910) and Sarah Catherine (Sayer) (1835-1924) Fancher. He appears on the Federal Census through 1920 and, as stated in his letter to Mrs. Blair, moved to Goshen in 1898 (Letter, C.W. Fancher to Mrs. Blair, August 7, 1926, Blair Papers).
Based upon a case with a paper label reading Wood & Taylor Cabinetmakers Florida (fig. 1), the Blair Collection clock case and at least three others can be attributed to the same woodworking shop. All display highly arched and star-inlaid pediments, case doors with distinctive crests with flattened arches, quarter columns and a similar configuration of border stringing. The Blair Collection clock is most closely related to a case at Winterthur Museum (fig. 2); both are more extensively inlaid, with twenty stars in the tympanum, a frieze of bookend and astragal reserves above the door and circular and oval reserves within the rectilinear case divisions. Like the Blair Collection example, one other clock bears the initials of its first owner in the bonnet rosettes (Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., Fine Americana, April 30-May 3, 1980, lot 1387; another clock sold Christie's New York, January 18-19, 2002, lot 397).
The clock was purchased by Mrs. Blair in 1926 from C.W. Fancher, the proprietor of Fancher's Colonial Shop in Goshen, New York. According to Fancher, the "SJ" initials in the clock's bonnet stand for Samuel Johnson, a relative of Fancher's who was one of the directors of the National Bank of Orange County, founded in 1812. Johnson resided on the outskirts of Goshen at Johnson's Corner in a house known in 1898 as the Pelaby House. Though his relationship to Samuel Johnson has not been determined, Fancher was undoubtedly Clinton Wheeler Fancher, who was born in 1865 in Warwick, New York, the son of Darius (1836-1910) and Sarah Catherine (Sayer) (1835-1924) Fancher. He appears on the Federal Census through 1920 and, as stated in his letter to Mrs. Blair, moved to Goshen in 1898 (Letter, C.W. Fancher to Mrs. Blair, August 7, 1926, Blair Papers).