Peter Stretch, Philadelphia

Available for purchase: Peter Stretch Walnut Tall Case Clock formerly in the Collection of  THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART

A QUEEN ANNE WALNUT TALL-CASE CLOCK

DIAL SIGNED BY PETER STRETCH (1670-1746); THE CASE ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN HEAD (1699-1754), PHILADELPHIA, 1720-1730

Details

A QUEEN ANNE WALNUT TALL-CASE CLOCK

DIAL SIGNED BY PETER STRETCH (1670-1746); THE CASE ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN HEAD (1699-1754), PHILADELPHIA, 1720-1730 The brass and silvered dial signed Peter Stretch/ Philadelphia; the front of the front plate engraved John Willis 1788/ IW; the base restored, 95 in. high, 20 ¾ in. wide, 10 ¾ in. deep

Provenance

Samuel Nice Pastorious (1863-1931), Germantown, Philadelphia

Literature

This clock is documented in  Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann III, Stretch: America’s First Family of Clockmakers (Winterthur Museum, 2013), pp. 154-155, cat. 19. John Joseph Stoudt, Early Pennsylvania Arts and Crafts (New York, 1964), p. 131, fig. 97

The square dial and eight-day movement is closely to several others signed by Stretch from the 1720s. The early composite brass dial w/ applied chapter ring, spandrels, seconds register, and engraved concentric rings around the winding holes.  The makers name is engraved on an applied silvered brass plate.  A calendar aperture appears below the name plate.  Fleur-de-lis half-hour markers are engraved in the chapter ring in between the hour markers.  The 8-day brass striking movement with recoil escapement and count wheel strike train.

The clock case is attributed to John Head and according to recent published research, Head’s account book recorded 42 clock cases made for Peter Stretch.  Jay Robert Stiefel, “Philadelphia Cabinetmaking and Commerce, 1718-1753: The Account Book of John Head, Joiner,” American Philosophical Society Bulletin, n.s. 1, no. 1 (Winter 2001), n.p.).