Bracket clock

Only two bracket clocks made in pre-Revolutionary Virginia are known, both of which bear the engraved label of "Thomas Walker / FREDERICKSBURG ." The one featured here is of standard size, while the other, now at Historic Deerfield, is remarkably small ( Deerfield accession L-29-84). Its scale is indicated by the size of the brass backplate that is slightly smaller than a standard playing card. Best known today for his many tall clock movements (see CWF accessions 1984-271 and 2005-105), Walker was Fredericksburg's most prominent and prolific colonial clockmaker. Although the lack of local tax records and newspapers prior to 1782 limits a full understanding of his career, court records confirm that he not only made but repaired both clocks and watches. Walker's reputation extended well beyond the Fredericksburg vicinity: outlying clients included William Cabell of distant Amherst County, who noted in 1774 that he "sent watch by P. Rose to Walker in Fredericksburg to be put in good order." One of Walker's 8-day clock movements was brought west to Kentucky and survives in its Black walnut case made by the Rhode Island born cabinetmaker Daniel Spencer in Lexington , Kentucky in the mid-1790s (accession 1951-578). Learn more at the link below.