Tall Case Clock

In the early nineteenth century, Thomas Best and his family—English silversmiths, jewelers, watchmakers, and clockmakers—settled in Cincinnati, then a village prospering on the ever-increasing river traffic bound for the western frontier. Samuel Best, Thomas’s eldest son, was the most successful of the family. Having learned his trade from his father, he established a business in Cincinnati around 1802, working out of a log house. There he assembled and repaired watches and clocks, and made items such as silver tumblers, milk and soup ladles, teaspoons, sugar spoons, watch seals, and keys. During his career, Samuel Best made approximately forty clocks.

This tall-case clock, like other clocks of the Federal period, is simply but elegantly ornamental, all the way to the delicately scrolled pediment eight feet above the floor. The patera, the decorated oval ornament above the clock face, is inlaid with the popular classical motif of an urn and flower. Rich veneer and inlay accent the mahogany and cherry case.

In the Federal period, the tall-case clock was the most expensive item in the household. These clocks were displayed in the parlor, where the family did most of its entertaining. Although tall-case clocks remained popular into the mid-nineteenth century, they were eventually supplanted by less expensive wall or shelf clocks.

Tall-case clocks are known more commonly today as grandfather clocks, a term originating with the popular song "My Grandfather's Clock," written by composer Henry Clay Work in 1876.