Riley Whiting/Rufus Cole Painted Tall Clock

Description:

Riley Whiting/Rufus Cole Painted Tall Clock, Winchester Connecticut and Broadalbin, New York, c. 1830, the scroll-top case decorated with stenciling, faux line, banded, and figured mahogany painted surface, the glazed dial opening over the painted wooden Arabic numeral dial signed R. Whiting/Winchester with floral sprays at the spandrels, rectangular waist door with centralized diamond design signed in red paint on the back Made by Abrm. Cole at ...(?), the base with variant decoration and marked on the skirting R. Cole/Painter, thirty-hour time and strike wooden movement with count-wheel strike, pendulum and two tin-cased weights, ht. 83 in.

Note: It is rare today to have a triple signed tall clock. The clock maker, Riley Whiting, the case maker, Abraham Cole and the case painter and decorator, Rufus Cole have all signed their work for future generations. For another more elaborately decorated example of the Cole's work please see the example in the J. Cheney Wells Collection at Old Sturbridge Village illustrated and discussed in Philip Zea and Robert C. Cheney, Clock Making in New England, 1725-1825, p. 90.
Estimate $4,000-6,000


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