The Kelloggs and clocks in Connecticut.(Collectors' notes)

Nancy Finlay, who has written for us in the past about the Kellogg family of lithographers in Connecticut, (1) has recently shared with us her findings about a typical Connecticut shelf clock decorated with a contemporaneous Kellogg lithograph and some interesting connections between the Kelloggs and clockmakers in Connecticut. She writes:

The Connecticut Historical Society Museum recently purchased a shelf clock (illustrated at right) decorated with a Kellogg lithograph entitled The Sisters surrounded by an applied printed paper border and mounted on a thin wood panel behind the glass. (2) A typical Eli Terry patent shelf clock, it is labeled by Julius Peck and Company, a clock manufacturer active in Litchfield, Connecticut, about 1835. (3) The label itself was printed by John R. Russell of Hartford, who, according to city directories, was doing business under this name only between 1835 and 1837. The Kellogg lithograph too dates from the 1830s, probably between 1834 and 1837, so clock, label, and print all appear to be closely contemporary and to date from the mid-1830s.

Daniel Wright Kellogg and his brothers, Edmund Burke Kellogg and Elijah Chapman Kellogg, ran the most important nineteenth-century lithographic firm in Hartford. Founded in 1830 or 1832, it continued under a variety of different names until well into the twentieth century. (4) But the Kelloggs had several intriguing connections to Connecticut's clockmaking industry. The father of the lithographers, another Daniel Kellogg (1766-1855), who was active as a goldsmith and a gunsmith, learned clockmaking from Daniel Burnap (1759-1838) in East Windsor. (5) Only one clock by him is recorded (formerly in the collection of George S. Palmer and now in another private collection), but it is a good demonstration of his skill as a clockmaker, for it is an elaborate musical tall clock similar to ones made by Burnap. The younger Daniel Kellogg was working in Bristol, another important Connecticut clockmaking center, as late as 1831, when his brother Elijah addressed a letter to him there. (6) D. W Kellogg's occupation is described in the letter as "bronzing," which probably refers to the technique of decorating clock glasses using stencils to apply bronzing powder to glue. Additional correspondence suggests that both D. W. Kellogg and Elijah Kellogg were involved in the sale of clocks in the early 1830s. (7) After he began his lithography business D. W. Kellogg seems to have seen the potential of his new endeavor for clock decoration. The William B. Fenn Collection at the American Clock and Watch Museum in Bristol includes a substantial cache of D. W. Kellogg's designs printed on very thin paper. These were evidently intended for transferring the image to the back of clock glasses, after which background paints were added for color as in traditional reverse painted decorations. Although only three titles--Amelia, Margaret, and Dr. Franklin--are represented, there are multiple copies of each, suggesting that they were intended as a form of mass-produced decoration, (8) and, indeed, according to the horologist Chris H. Bailey of the American Clock and Watch Museum, clocks with these designs occasionally do show up on the market.

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A number of Connecticut clocks decorated with other Kellogg prints are also known, among them shelf clocks by Riley Whiting of Winchester and by Atkins and Downs of Bristol. The titles include Young Napoleon, Daniel Webster, and The Bud and the Blossom, the ...