Jacob Cope Grandfather Clock, ca. 1820
Watch
GUEST:
This is an eight-foot clock that was given to my husband and I when we were married and it's been in my house for the past seven years since we were first married. My parents had acquired it back in around 1980 at an auction. They were big auctioners. They would go all the time, leave us in the car.
APPRAISER:
What a wonderful gift that is, to have a tall case clock like this.
GUEST:
Yep.
APPRAISER:
Do you know much about it at all?
GUEST:
Uh... just that it's a Pennsylvania clock.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
And it's a country clock.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
And not much else.
APPRAISER:
What I really like about the clock is it's really wonderfully proportioned. It was made by a gentleman named Jacob Cope. Jacob Cope worked in Watsontown, Pennsylvania. And usually on tall case clocks, if they're signed, they're signed on the dial right here. But this one is a little bit different. This one is actually signed on the pendulum bob "Jacob Cope," and it's engraved, and it's also numbered, 112, which stands for probably his 112th clock that he made. This clock was made circa 1815, 1820, in that time frame, and one of the things that helps me date a clock like this is the actual dial. This dial was probably painted in that time frame because of these outer minute markings. It has the 60, the 15, the 30, and the 45. If it were about ten, 15 years earlier than that, all of these indicators, you'd have 60, 5, 10, fully marked around the entire dial. It has these wonderful ogee bracket feet. It also has this base with this turtle panel. You really only see that on Pennsylvania clocks. You don't really see it anywhere else. It also has this great shaped door here in the waist, which is nice, then you work up into the bonnet, and it has these wonderful turned columns, and it has this beautiful broken arch, or some people refer to it as a swan's neck pediment at the top. The dial is very distinctive. It was made by a gentleman named William Jones in Philadelphia. He came to this country in, like, 1815 and worked from 1815, I believe, to about 1830, and his dials are very distinctive with these colors. You have the reds and the greens in the dial. You can tell that this clock is a 30-hour clock because it doesn't have winding arbors in the dial. If it had winding arbors, it would be an indication that it was an eight-day clock-- it would run for eight days on one winding-- which are a bit more desirable than 30-hour clocks. But, all in all, it's really a beautiful clock. I think in the right circumstance, in a retail shop, in this area, in Pennsylvania, where it's more desirable than, say, it would be in New England, because it's a signed Pennsylvania clock, I think you'd expect to find a price tag of $7,500.
GUEST:
That is super. Thank you so much.
Appraisal Details
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