Levi & Abel Hutchins Tall Clock. This clock is diminutive, measuring only 7 feet 1 inches tall, and was made in Concord, New Hampshire. LL-29.
This is an excellent example of a tall maple case clock made by Levi and Abel Hutchins, Concord, New Hampshire's premier clockmakers.
This example is constructed in the traditional woods and proportions expected from the Concord, New Hampshire region, circa 1790. This maple case retains its original mahoganized surface. This is a process of staining the maplewood to look like a darker mahogany. Due to Concord's geographic location, mahogany wood would have been difficult to obtain. It would have also been expensive. As a result, early furniture makers did their best to emulate the latest styles with the resources available to them at the time. The case stands on simply formed applied bracket feet. They are applied to the bottom of a double-stepped base molding. The waist section is fitted with a large tombstone-shaped waist door. This door is trimmed with a simple molded edge. Through this door, one can access the case's interior, where the two tin-can drive weights and the pendulum are located. The bonnet can be easily described as having a swan's-neck form. The shaped moldings terminate in finely carved pinwheel rosettes. Two cast brass finials are mounted at the top of the bonnet on the outer edges. The bonnet columns are turned smooth and mounted into brass capitals. The bonnet door is an arched form and is fitted with glass.
This dial is brass. It is made up of six individual pieces that are riveted together. The front surface is richly engraved. The engravings are filled with black wax, and the dial's surface is covered in a silver wash. The silver compound adheres to the brass, not the wax, providing the color contrast. The decoration and design are skillfully executed, including the time ring, the date-of-month calendar, the seconds dial, the floral decorations, and the Maker's signature. This dial is signed in the arch "Levi & Abel Hutchins / CONCORD." This dial is attached to the movement via four dial feet. These are secured to the dial with four screws and pined to the movement.
This fine movement is constructed in brass and is of good quality. Four turned pillars support the two brass plates. Hardened steel shafts support the polished steel pinions, brass gearing, and recoil escapement. The winding drums are grooved. The weight-driven movement is designed to run for eight days on a full wind. It is a two-train or time-and-strike design with a rack-and-snail striking system. As a result, it will strike the hour on a cast-iron bell mounted above the movement.
This clock case is approximately 7 feet 1 inch tall (85 inches) and was made circa 1790.
Inventory number LL-29.
Levi Hutchins was born in Harvard, Massachusetts, on August 17, 1761, and died peacefully on June 13, 1855. He was 93. His remains were interred in the Friends' burial ground in Concord, New Hampshire. Interestingly, this was a society he somewhat withdrew from several years before his death. Levi was one of eleven children. His parents were Colonel Gordon Hutchins & Dolly or Dorothy Stone. Levi had a younger brother, Abel, born in March 1763. He also became a clockmaker and, for a time, worked with his brother in a partnership. Able died in the town of Concord on April 4, 1853. Both men lived into their nineties and lived long, prosperous lives. I have listed some of Levi's life highlights below.
In 1772, their father moved the family from Harvard, MA, to Concord, NH. In Concord, he purchased land and buildings and commenced as a storekeeper. Gordon became active in the revolution and served as a Captain in the local regiment. Young Levi served in his regiment as a Fifer from April to September 1775. In May of that year, Gordon Hutchins marched to Breed's Hill under the command of Colonel John Stark. Young Levi accompanied them and watched the battle from a distance high on the hills of Medford, MA. Levi also witnessed the burning of Charlestown. His father, Gordon, was later stationed at Winter Hill until the end of that year. Levi enlisted in Captain Lewis' Company, in Colonel Varnum's Regiment, under General Green. In the spring of 1776, he marched to New York under General Washington's orders to protect the city. He was posted in Brooklyn for a while. He remained posted on the island of Red Hook, which is located 4 miles from New York and is situated to protect the harbor until the defeat of the Americans in the battle of Long Island. Levi was honorably discharged and returned to New Hampshire on horseback.
Levi was well educated. In 1778, he attended Byfield Academy for one quarter and Andover Academy for two quarters. In 1779, he was recruited as a school teacher and taught in Tewksbury, Pembroke, and Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Later that year, he and his father boarded the Privateer, ”Hector,” and sailed up the coast. Levi served as a Doctor's mate.
On December 6, 1777, the two brothers entered an apprenticeship with the ingenious clockmaker Simon Willard in Grafton, Massachusetts. At this time, Levi was sixteen, and Abel was fourteen years of age. After Levi served his 3-year indenture to Simon, he traveled to Abington, CT, to complete an 8-month apprenticeship in the watch-repair trade.
Levi may have moved to Concord, New Hampshire, as early as 1782. Here, he set up a residence and shop on Main Street in the central village. His first shop was near the railroad passenger depot, just a short distance from the junction of the Merrimack River and the roads from Boston, Portsmouth, and the Connecticut Valley. Soon after Levi arrived, his brother Able moved up from Roxbury, MA, having worked with the Willards for a few years. Together, they formed a partnership that lasted until about 1803 and became the most prolific clockmakers in the Concord region for several years. Based on the number of examples that trade in the marketplace, their output of tall case clocks was substantial. The earliest known advertisement helps date their partnership. It was published in 1788 in the New Hampshire Spy. They placed an ad in the Concord Herald in 1790 and again in 1792, looking for two apprentices. It is thought that Peabody Atkinson and Jesse Smith answered the ad and trained under them. Both men are recorded as working as farmers in Virginia in their later years.
On February 23, 1789, Levi married Phoebe Hanaford, daughter of Benjamin and Ruth Hanaford of Haverhill, MA. Together, they had ten children. Levi made each one of them a clock before he passed.
In 1793, Levi and Abel purchased a farm three miles away on the western side of Rattlesnake Hill. Here, they continued to manufacture clocks and began farming.
In 1807, their partnership was dissolved. Abel bought Levi's share of the business and paid off all debts. Levi received the farm and opened his own shop across the street from Gale's Tavern. Abel retained the house, the original shop, and the parcel of land. On Tuesday, November 25, 1817, these buildings were consumed by fire. Two years later, Abel erected the Phoenix Hotel.
In 1808, Levi traded the hill farm for real estate situated in the West Parish of Concord.
It included a house on 70 acres, including an apple orchard, a dilapidated fort, a large barn, a woodshed, and later a sawmill on Long Pond in the West Parish or West Concord Village.
After the War of 1812, in about 1815, Levi built a large building and set up five looms to manufacture cloth. The cloth business lasted three years before it became unprofitable and was sold off. One room in this barn was used for clockmaking. Levi continued to work on brass clocks for 20 years. The sawmill operated for 50 years.
