24.                   $600

Munger & Benedict “Patent Eight-day Brass Clock”, 1831-1833.  Asa and Thaddeus formed a partnership in 1825 but didn’t include Benedict on the label until 1831; after 1833 Clark Hotchkiss joined the group and it was renamed Munger & Co.  The 41-inch case is veneered in mahogany with carved half-columns top and bottom.  The sides are lighter in color, perhaps a different wood.  Note the unusual reverse-painted glass splat depicting, I think, a couple lamenting the death of their daughter.  The dial glass is original with the original paint, but the decorations in the corners are no longer well defined.  The lower mirror certainly appears to be original.  The painted dial is also original, signed ‘Warranted by Munger & Benedict, Auburn N-Y’, and with three proper and possibly original hands.  The 8-day time-and-strike brass movement is unsigned and unnumbered; it will strike on the hour on the brass overhead bell, but I can’t persuade it to run.  I didn’t try too hard.  There are two correct weights and a correct and original flying eagle pendulum bob; the interior retains the original wallpaper and a good label in the middle. There are four wooden pulleys and two glass door pulls.   Other examples have the same door pulls.  AAC sold a similar example in 2021 for $1100; I note that it also had lighter colored veneer on the sides.  Schmidt’s Antiques sold a nice example last fall for $1000.  $600–$1000.

Ed Sperling has noted that the doors are not veneered (nor are the sides).  I sold one in 2021 where the doors were veneered, but not the sides.  The dividers here are veneered, so my guess is that the doors were also veneered, but perhaps not the sides.