Charleston Loan Exhibition

63 Joshua Lockwood was one of the most prolific clock and watch makers in colonial America. Arriving in Charleston about 1757, he announced that he was “from London” and declared, “he intends to follow the art or calling of watch and clock making, mending, and repairing.” 1 The variety and volume of goods that Lockwood adver- tised set him apart from his competitors. In addition to clocks and watches, he sold silverware, jewelry, glassware, textiles and sundry other luxury goods. He also specialized in novelty timepieces, some of which he designed and made himself. 2 Scholars have asserted that he imported his clockworks wholly assembled and even engraved in advance; however, he clearly advertises that he made, imported and assembled clocks and watches in his workshop, employing several other skilled workers, including silversmith Arthur Downes. He offered a variety of silversmithing services in his workshop. The majority of surviving Charleston tall clocks and bracket clocks are engraved with Joshua Lockwood’s name or that of his apprentice and brother-in-law, William Lee. Like this example, the cases are relatively uniform and in a style that was popular in England beginning in the 1740s. Lockwood’s known clock cases were imported from London and not a single American-made case with his clockworks has yet to be documented. However, we know that local cabinetmakers made clock cases, and Lockwood had a long-standing relationship with Thomas Elfe, who made or mended clock cases, knife boxes, drawers, work benches and showcases for Lockwood. 3 This evidence sheds doubt on the assumption that he only imported completely assembled clockworks with their cases from abroad. BSC and CC 1. South Carolina Gazette , Charleston, SC, January 13 and April 14, 1757. 2. For example, he offered musical clocks “never seen in these Parts”; “curious Spring-pieces with Pedestals” such as “our Nobility and Gentry have in Chambers” and eight-day clocks “with a Slave plant- ing in the Arch, the Motto Success to the Planters,” South Carolina Gazette , Charleston, SC, March 21, 1761; August 28, 1762. 3. For documentation of Lockwood’s working relationship with Thomas Elfe, see Mabel L. Weber, ed., “The Thomas Elfe Account Book, 1768-1775,” The South Carolina Historical Magazine (article runs over successive years, 1934–1941); for examples, see Vol. 35, No. 3 (July 1934), 104; Vol. 36, No. 2 (April 1935), 60, 66; Vol. 36. No. 3 (July 1935), p. 79; or Vol. 37, No. 1 (Jan. 1936), 29. William Lee (American, 1746–1803), retailer and clockmaker Bracket clock Assembled in Charleston with English case and works, ca. 1770 Ebonized mahogany case with gilt and silvered brass and steel, glass H. 17¾ x W. 10 x D. 7¼ inches Historic Charleston Foundation, Charleston, SC, 80.1.1 Conservation sponsored by Mark Maresca & Associates Architects, Inc. and The Brass & Silver Workshop Bracket clocks were rare even in their own time, and few of these clocks engraved with a Charleston watchmaker’s name are known. Lockwood’s apprentice and brother-in-law, William Lee, signed the center medallion above the chapter ring of this bracket clock. Both the brass medallion and the ring were originally silvered but the treatment has since been lost. Within an ebonized case, the eight-day clock, which needed winding only once a week, has an alarm set with Arabic numbers and a carrying handle atop so that it could be transported throughout the house. The case’s glazed sides allow you to peer at the elaborate mechanisms within and reveal glimpses of the intricately engraved back plate. Personal timepieces were widely valued in Charleston because governing one’s own time and the schedules of others was an essential practice for a mercantile community that operated largely on enslaved labor. BSC