Tall Clock

1912

Designed by George Grant Elmslie (American, born Scotland, 1869–1952)
Purcell, Feick and Elmslie (American, active 1910–12)
Manufactured by Niedecken-Walbridge Co. (American, active 1907–38)
Milwaukee

This handsome tall-case clock was designed by the firm of George Grant Elmslie and William Gray Purcell for the Henry Babson House in Riverside, Illinois. Although Louis Sullivan designed the house in 1907, a large part of the scheme—including the built-in and freestanding furniture—was actually executed by Elmslie, who was then working for Sullivan. In 1912 Elmslie and his firm made additions to the house, including eight pieces of furniture. This elegant clock, whose works and nine chimes were imported from Germany, dates from this later commission. Its hands were executed by Chicago metalsmith Robert Riddle Jarvie according to Elmslie’s design. In his concern over creating an organic, harmonious relationship between the interior of a house and its exterior, the Scottish-born Elmslie found a staunch ally in designer George Niedecken, president of Niedecken-Walbridge, a firm based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which made the clock’s mahogany case.

Status: On View, Gallery 178
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: George Grant Elmslie (Designer)
Title: Tall Clock
Place: Milwaukee (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1912
Medium: Mahogany with brass inlay
Dimensions: 213.3 × 66 × 40 cm (84 × 26 × 15 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken
Reference Number: 1971.322

E. Van Regay, The Western Architect 22, 1 (July 1915), 1–12 (ill.).
Hanzel Gallery Auction Catalogue, Apr. 25, 1971, no. 269.
Rob Cuscaden, “Clock of Three Architects,” Chicago Sun–Times, Jan. 30, 1972.
New Accession,” Apollo 95, 124 (June 1972), 504 (ill.).
Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1973), 8 (ill.).
Sir Francis Watson, The History of Furniture (Crescent, 1976), 237–67 (ill.).
Isabelle Anscombe and Charlotte Gere, Arts and Crafts in Britain and America (Rizzoli, 1978), 167, no. 230.
Milo M. Naeve, Identifying American Furniture (American Association for State and Local History, 1981), 48, no. 96.
Sharon Darling, Chicago Furniture, Art, Craft, and Industry, 1833–1983 (W.W. Norton, 1984), 255 (ill.).
John S. Bowman, American Furniture (Exeter Books, 1985), 154 (ill.).
Lita Solis–Cohen, “Chicago Shows Off – Tastefully,” Maine Antiques Digest (Dec. 1988), 12B–15B (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, Identifying American Furniture, 2nd ed., (American Association for State and Local History, 1989), 27, no. 269.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 313–15, no. 164.

Princeton, New Jersey, The Art Museum, The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1876–1916, Oct. 21–Dec. 17, 1972, cat. 79; Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 24–Apr. 22, 1973, Washington, DC, Renwick Gallery of the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, June 1–Sept. 10, 1973.
Chicago Historical Society, Chicago Furniture: Art, Craft, and Industry, 1833–1983, Dec. 5, 1983–Aug. 31, 1984, no cat.; Washington, DC, Renwick Gallery of the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Oct. 12, 1984–Apr. 7, 1985, New York, Cooper Hewitt Museum, May 21–Aug. 25, 1985.
Art Institute of Chicago, Apostles of Beauty: Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago, Nov. 7, 2009–Jan. 31, 2010, cat. 47.

Henry B. Babson House, Riverside, Ill., 1912; Hanzel Gallery, Chicago, 1971; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1971.

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