Lot 554: THE SIMON NEWCOMB FAMILY FINE FEDERAL INLAID AND FIGURED MAHOGANY TALL CASE CLOCK, WORKS BY SIMON WILLARD, ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS CIRCA 1795

dial inscribed Warranted for Mr. S. Newcomb. Back of false plate stamped WILSON. Retains its original Isaiah Thomas, Jr. paper label. Lacks feet.

Height 91 1/2 in. by Width 19 1/4 in. by Depth 9 1/2 in.

Simon Newcomb (1735-1808), Wellfleet, Barnstable, Massachusetts;
Simon Newcomb (1778-1848), Wellfleet, Barnstable, Massachusetts;
Capt. Elish Cole Newcomb (1802-1853), Wellfleet, Barnstable, Massachusetts, son;
Benjamin Franklin Newcomb (1829-1911), Wellfleet, Barnstable, Massachusetts, son;
Annie True [Newcomb] (1850-1923), Wellfleet, Barnstable, Massachusetts and Woodfords, Maine, daughter-in-law;
Annie True, niece [she was thirteen when she received it. Her then father sold it to];
Bertha O. True;
Louise E. True, sister;
Margaret True Racette, daughter;
to the current consignor

This clock is a rare example of a warrented Simon Willard tall case clock retaining its original Isaiah Thomas, Jr. paper label. The dial is imported from the Birmingham, England company Wilson. Another warrented clock with its false plate stamped Wilson is in the collections of Old Strubridge Village, acc. no. 57.1.64 (see Philip Zea and Robert C. Cheney, Clock Making in New England 1725-1825, (Strurbridge, MA: Old Sturbridge Village, 1992), pp. 37, 161, fig. 2-19). Another Simon Willard clock in the collection of Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum while not warrented has a closely related dial and overall ornament (see Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period, (New York: Viking Press, 1966), pp. 196-7, no. 148).

Simon Newcomb, according to the Muster Roll, fought in the French and Indian war 1758-9. He was also a constable and yeoman in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.