James McCabe Table Clock, ca. 1805
Watch
GUEST:
This is a McCabe 1790 carriage clock. It's been in the family a long time. And it's been on the dining room table when I grew up...
APPRAISER:
And it sounds like from your accent it wasn't here on this continent.
GUEST:
No, it's, uh, London, England.
APPRAISER:
London, England. James McCabe was born in 1748 in Ireland to a watchmaking family. Uh, within 20 years, he's moved to Belfast, and then eventually to London, and set up a shop in the Royal Exchange. And the Royal Exchange was a commerce center where some of the finer manufacturers of goods would not only work, but display their wares. The 1790 number that you see on the dial...
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
...is not a date. It's actually a serial number.
GUEST:
Oh, I th-- wow. Okay.
APPRAISER:
So, coincidentally, right?
GUEST:
Yeah?
APPRAISER:
1790, it sounds great, right?
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
But it wasn't made much longer after that.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
This clock probably was made before 1810 and probably after 1800. Now, we don't call this a carriage clock.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
Although it has a lot of carriage clock aspects to it. The case presentation falls into the category of a library or, more appropriately, a table clock.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
London quality in the 1800s was second to none. Very, very good quality. Everything in this is essentially handmade. This is a brass case that they've treated with a finish to give it a period look. The finish is original to this clock. The dial's brass and it has a silver wash. If we turn this a little bit, you can see that it's a striking clock. Strikes the hour on a bell. And at the bottom of what we call the back plate…
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
...we see that it's also signed by James McCabe.
GUEST:
Showed that he was the manufacturer.
APPRAISER:
Shows that he was the manufacturer.
GUEST:
(chuckles)
APPRAISER:
And the fact that he would sign the bottom of it would indicate that they were, this is something that they were really proud of.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
If we turn it to the side, you'll notice that it has this what we call a fusee movement. This clock is powered by a coil spring, which is inside this brass canister.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
The clock will run faster during the beginning of the week if it's just on a coil spring because there's more power, in theory. So what they did was, they added this fusee-shaped, or this tapered, cone, and when the clock is fully wound, it pulls from the small side of the drum.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And it tapers upward over the week. So it equalizes the power...
GUEST:
Yeah. Yeah.
APPRAISER:
...over the length of the run. A sign of, again, quality. You'll notice that it has a chain, and the chain is what's the connection between the two. If you can think of somebody making that chain at a bench, probably in a candlelit room, and putting all those links together?
GUEST:
(chuckling) Yeah. Yeah, cause... Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Chains often break and they're replaced with cable or cord. So the fact that you have your original chain is really a nice added feature to this clock. If you were to replace this clock, I think that you probably would have to budget somewhere in the neighborhood of $4,500 to $5,000 buying it out of a good shop.
GUEST:
Yeah. Wow-- it's a great clock. Thank you.
APPRAISER:
Very, very good quality.
GUEST:
Okay, thank you very much.
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