91.       $400

Marshall & Adams Empire shelf clock, 1833-1836.  Marshall & Adams worked in Seneca Falls NY producing several models with either wooden works or brass-strap movements.  This is their top-of-the-line model, a 40-inch mahogany-veneered case with full columns, four glasses, and a heavy brass-strap 8-day, time-and-strike movement; note the large claw feet.  This finish is excellent here and the figured mahogany is clear.  However, there are numerous pieces of missing veneer, especially on the edges of the cornice.  All four glasses are almost certainly original, the two door glasses held in place with their original putty.  The lower glass is the only one that has been repainted; the two smaller glasses have been touched up.  The lower tablet is very well done, painted in the door, and is like other images I have seen on upstate NY clocks; however, M&A did not use this style of tablet in these clocks, preferring a curtain motif that left the interior back wall visible to the viewer (Russ Oechsle, An Empire in Time, pages 80-84).  I cannot determine the painting’s age.  The wooden dial is a replacement as evidenced by the two filled winding holes; nonetheless, it looks great.  The hands are likely original.  The movement is unsigned, as is typical, but it is clearly a M&A movement and matches one shown in An Empire in Time on page 81 (An Empire in Time is available in Books, #935).  There are two 9-lb iron weights, and the clock is running and striking a wire gong as expected.  There is a good label inside.  This clock is far from perfect, but clocks from the 1830’s rarely are.  $400-$600.