Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Wall Clock
ca. 1850
Horace Tifft (1804-1886)
USA: Massachusetts, North Attleboro
Wood, brass, glass
overall: 29"h x 10-1/2"w x 3-3/4"d
Gift of Mrs. Willis R. Michael
82.53.20a-b

Wall Clock; a: clock: "Banjo" type; square-shaped box; round dial, glass tablet, reverse painted in black and gold; wood side arm supports; b: pendulum.

Clockmaker Simon Willard (1753-1848) first patented this distinctive shape of clock—now called banjo clocks—in the 1810s. His patent expired in the 1830s. Before then and after, other clockmakers provided consumers with banjo clocks. With updated styling and increasingly affordable prices, banjo clocks remained popular with consumers throughout the 1800s. Horace Tifft produced banjo-shaped clocks in volume—he established showrooms in New York and Philadelphia to promote them—from the mid-1840s through at least 1861.