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Description: the white painted dial inscribed A. Willard Jr. BOSTON. No. 1885. In remarkably well-preserved condition.

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Dimensions: height 45in. by width 10in. 104cm by 25.5cm

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Notes: Known today as a banjo clock, examples like this one are versions of the 'improved timepiece' patented by Simon Willard in 1802. Clocks of this form were usually constructed with wooden cases and either parcel-gilt or overall gilt and sometimes fitted with costly églomisé panels. Scenes from Greek mythology are often depicted on églomisé panels of clocks made by the second generation of Willard clockmakers.

The lower églomisé panel of this clock depicts Aurora, Goddess of the Dawn, in her two-horse-drawn chariot, symbolizing the rapidity of fleeing time. The inscription on the dial indicates it was No. 0094 in the production of Aaron Willard, Jr. (1783-1864), a Boston clockmaker and member of a famous family of clockmakers. Aaron learned the trade from his father, Aaron Stephen Willard, and worked as a clockmaker on Washington Street before forming a business partnership with Spencer Nolen in the early 1800s. Working as Willard & Nolen, the firm advertised painted clock dials, glasses and ornamental gilding, extant examples of which are usually signed. As seen on the present clock, Aaron Jr. often signed and numbered his dials. He continued to be listed in Boston city directories as a clockmaker working at 815 Washington Street until 1848/9. He retired in 1850 (Steven Petrucelli and Kenneth Sposato, American Banjo Clocks, 1995, p. 32).

Similar banjo clocks by Aaron Willard, Jr. with an églomisé panel depicting Aurora include two from Israel Sack Inc., one in a private collection, and one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated in Petrucelli and Sposato, fig. 82, p. 72, fig. 100, p. 82, fig. 106, p. 85, and fig. 113, p. 88.