A Philadelphia Clockmaker, and More
by Bob Frishman
Edward Duffield (1730–1803) was a highly skilled 18th-century Philadelphia clockmaker who lived in an era and a city that were among the most important in Colonial America.
He was no typical “leather-apron” craftsman. He inherited wealth and owned many properties. He was deeply involved in his community’s economic, civic, and religious life and was among the city’s social elite. He was a life-long friend of Benjamin Franklin. The two men’s families were closely connected and often exchanged lengthy visits. Duffield served in 1790 as an executor of Franklin’s estate. For more than a decade Duffield held the honored position of keeper of the public clock atop the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall.
Young Edward perhaps began tinkering with watches and clocks that his affluent family had the means to possess. Perhaps he chose the prestigious trade of clockmaking to make his own way in the world.
Today his clocks are found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Winterthur, Colonial Williamsburg, and the Library Company of Philadelphia. More Duffield clocks grace the rooms of house museums, historical societies, and private collections. Three are owned by the American Philosophical Society, of which Duffield was a member and which published the new book Edward Duffield: Philadelphia Clockmaker, Citizen, Gentleman, 1730–1803. The work’s extensive catalogue details 71 of his signed clocks and instruments.
Figure 1. Edward Duffield, Dial from tall case clock, late 18th century, Philadelphia, PA. American Philosophical Society, 1966.0036. Photo by John Wynn.
Well before Edward’s ascendancy in the trade, clockmaking relied on divisions of labor and specialist production. Edward had easy access to local and imported components that were much easier to buy than to make and that were equal in quality to parts he would otherwise have laboriously cast, turned, drawn, scraped, filed, drilled, milled, and polished. He was likely to have completed clocks of standard design from rough prefabricated components, and this required substantial expertise, experience, and specialized tools.
Figure 2. Back of spherical-moon dial showing Edward Duffield’s simple system for rotating the globes. From a mahogany case clock, c. 1750, Philadelphia, PA. American Philosophical Society, 58.63. Photo by John Wynn.
Edward did not make the wooden cases that contained his metal movements and dials but may have discussed with clients and local cabinetmakers the woods, scale, ornamentation, and finishes of those elegant walnut or mahogany vessels.
Figure 3. Undated Edward Duffield watch paper. Courtesy of Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Doc.499, p.5.
This new publication provides much detail about the craft of clockmaking in 18th-century Philadelphia but is moreover the history of a prominent artisan, citizen, landowner, and intimate of many of the luminaries who helped shape his city and his new nation.
Bob Frishman operates Bell-Time Clocks in Andover, MA, and is the author of Edward Duffield: Philadelphia Clockmaker, Citizen, Gentleman, 1730–1803, which can be purchased at Penn Press.
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