Time Well Spent: Clockmaking in Colonial America

Please join us on Friday, June 5, for “Time Well Spent: Clockmaking in Colonial America,” the 2015 Redwood History Seminar. This special event features an afternoon of fascinating presentations and discussion by our panel of five experts. An optional dinner at Harbour Court (New York Yacht Club) will follow.

Registration begins at 1:30 pm. The talks take place from 1:45-5:00 pm. Tickets are $50 per person for the seminar and $175 per person for the seminar and dinner (7:00 pm.) Click here for details and to reserve a spot for the seminar and/or the dinner. Questions? Call Gretchen Markert at 401-847-0292, ext. 102. Tickets are transferable but not refundable.

The speakers’ topics are as follows:

“The Impact of Timekeeping on Civilization”

Frank Hohmann III is a retired Wall Street executive, a collector of 18th-century American furniture, especially clocks, and has co-authored and published two books on clocks and one on sculpture. He is currently working with Don Fennimore on a print book on the Claggett family of Newport.

“Far From Equilibrium: The Structural and Historical Clock Shop”

David Wood is curator of the Concord Museum and author of An Observant Eye: The Thoreau Collection at the Concord Museum and a number of articles on Concord craftsmen, including the clockmakers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

“Clocks and Science in Early America”

Donald L. Fennimore retired after serving as curator of metals at the Winterthur Museum for thirty-four years. Though retired, he continues to remain active with research and publication. He has numerous publications to his credit and is currently working on a book with Frank Hohmann III on the early 18th-century Newport clockmaker, William Claggett. Don’s presentation will explore clocks in early America, specifically tall or “grandfather” clocks. Topics to be considered will include the definition of science at the time, the various vocations and avocations to which the term was applied, a few of the personalities involved in scientific research and the importance of clocks and clockwork mechanisms to the advancement of science.

“A Recent Discovery”

Jeffrey Greene is the owner of Ball & Claw and is a furniture maker with over thirty years’ experience working in the style of Newport’s legendary Goddard and Townsend cabinetmakers. He is also a researcher on the subject and author of American Furniture of the 18th Century: History, Technique, Structure, a volume widely used in period furniture and curatorial programs. He often consults on the acquisition of period pieces and his research has led to the discovery of several previously unknown signed originals. He has recently founded the Center for the Study of Newport Furniture (www.csnf.org), an organization to advance the research into these American masterpieces and begin a detailed archival documentation of all known examples. Greene is also working with IYRS in the development of a fine joinery program, based on the object study of Goddard and Townsend originals in the collection of the Newport Restoration Foundation and other prominent collections.

“Exceptional Clocks and Clockmakers of Rhode Island: 1725-1825”

Gary R. Sullivan is a nationally recognized authority on early American clocks. His antiques business is celebrating its 40th year. He has written and contributed to several books and articles on early American clocks and is currently working on a study of Rhode Island clocks and furniture with Yale University Art Gallery. He frequently appears on Antiques Roadshow.