DIAL SIGNED BY PHILIP BROWN (1789-1854), HOPKINTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE, CIRCA 1810

Made of cherrywood and embellished with checkered inlay, this tall-case clock illustrates the regional preferences in early nineteenth-century New Hampshire. Philip Brown was born in 1789 and practiced the trades of clockmaker, silversmith and jeweller. He advertised in Hopkinton as early as 1810 and after his shop was purchased by Edmund Currier in 1815, resumed his business in 1819. He is said to have won $25,000 in a lottery in 1815, an event that may explain his respite from clockmaking at this time. In 1819, he had his portrait painted by Zedekiah Belknap (1781-1858) and later moved to Concord, where he died in 1854. See Paul J. Foley, Willard's Patent Time Pieces (Norwell, MA, 2002), p. 225; Charles S. Parsons, New Hampshire Clocks and Clockmakers (Exeter, NH, 1976), p. 301; Distin and Bishop, The American Clock (New York, 1976), p. 66; [The Currier Gallery of Art], The Decorative Arts of New Hampshire, 1725-1825 (1964), no. 103). For other known tall-case clocks signed by Brown, see Parsons, figs. 161-165 (also illustrated in Currier Gallery, no. 89 and Distin & Bishop, no. 128) and Susan & Richard Raymound, advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (October 1981), p. 830.