JG-20.            $150

E. Ingraham Co. “Lee”, ca. 1899.  One of six clocks offered by Ingraham in 1899 that honored heroes of the 10-week-long, 1898 Spanish-American war.  Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee (nephew of Robert E. Lee) was the American Consul-General in Havana, Cuba in 1898 when the USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor under suspicious circumstances; this event led to the Spanish-American War, as Spain, which was fighting the Cubans in their War of Independence, had a large military presence in Havana Harbor.  The New York press (Hearst and Pulitzer) insisted that the Maine had been mined, although the Navy concluded that the explosion resulted from a coal bunker fire.  Lee had requested that a warship be sent to Havana to demonstrate American strength and commitment to a peaceful settlement between Cuba and Spain.  Was Lee’s role in the events of the day sufficient to justify a clock named after him?  I suspect that Ingraham was playing to the Old South, naming a clock after Fitzhugh Lee, a former Confederate Calvary General in the Civil War, and a former Governor of Virginia. 

The Lee is one of the more difficult “Spanish-American War series” clocks to find.  The 23-inch pressed wood oak case has been refinished; the door glass is correct, the paper dial is likely original and bears the E. Ingraham Co. imprint.  The signed, 8-day, time-and-strike movement is very dirty and the time spring is either broken or unattached, and will not wind.  The strike is working, striking on a wire gong on an Ingraham base.  The ‘eagle and shield’ bronze pendulum is correct.  There is an advertising label for E. Ingraham on the back.  I count six clocks in this series: M’Kinley, Emblem, Maine, Peace, Dewey (two versions), and Lee.  Thriftiques of Iowa sold a Lee in 2021 for $360.  $150-$300.