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Dial and Reverse Glass
Painting
The dials and reverse paintings on
pillar and scroll clocks were painted by single women and girls who
resided in the homes of the clockmakers. One girl could make about
1,000 paintings or dials per year. Some clockmakers had as many as
12 employees living in their homes. This living arrangement was
required because the clockmaker owned the gold, glass, wood plates,
and oil paints to decorate the clock.
As more factories opened the
quantity of painted tablets could not be obtained, so veneer panels
and mirrors began to be used. Also stenciling began to be used for
the border to reduce cost and increase output.
Before Eli Terry’s invention of
the shelf clock, dials were painted in Connecticut by older women,
with decorations appropriate to the quality of the tallcase clock.
Cases would be made by a joiner hired by either the clockmaker or
buyer. Thus, there was considerable variation in the case style and
quality. At this time reverse glass paintings were made to decorate
the top of framed looking glasses (mirrors).
Terry’s idea for his original
clock was to have it housed in a plain box with the dial painted on
the back of the glass. He soon moved from this simple inexpensive
clock style to a much more elaborate style with painted and gilded
dials and reverse glass tablets with gold borders. These changes
added much appeal for the buyer. Clocks in the 1820s served as a
status symbol, rather than a timepiece. There was little need to
know what time it was, as workers toiled from sunup to sundown with
a break at noon.
Terry’s first clock, Model No. 1,
was produced in limited numbers, and all dials were probably
produced by a female member of the family. As the production numbers
increased toward 2,000 per factory by 1822, young female workers
were added.
Roman numerals were frequently
used on the dials, rather than Arabic numerals, because less skill
was required to paint them. In all instances the clockmaker was
attempting to make his clock visually appealing to help sell it at
the lowest possible cost. |
