Artist/Maker

Welfare, Johann Thomas

Place Made

Date Made

Ca. 1825

Medium

maple, poplar, pine

Dimensions

HOA: 42″; WOA: 8 1/2″

Accession Number

6022

Description

DESCRIPTION: Diminutive clock in the tall case clock form; primary wood is figured maple with poplar and pine secondary woods. The clock case is in two parts. The hood has a broken-scroll pediment with turned bullseye-type terminals and central plinth surmounted by oversized urn-and-spire finial. The astragal shaped hood door is flanked by full columns that cant out slightly. Sides have cove shoulder molding, waist with rectangular glass aperture above cove molding, The waist has solid sides and with a long vertical glass window (fixed; does not open); The base has French-type feet and curved skirt cut from the board, There are two drilled holes just above the shaping of the skirt. The painted sheet-iron dial features a vignette of Classical ruins in the arch and gilt foliate devices on a red ground in the spandrels flanking an Arabic chapter ring, unsigned. Poplar and pine secondary woods. Case retains an early surface with rich color.

Case attributed to joiner Johann Thomas Welfare (Active, c. 1815-1830 Dial may have been painted by his brother Christian Daniel Welfare (1796-1841). Pendulum possibly by Johann Ludwig Eberhardt (Active, c. 1799-1839).

Works replaced, backboard replaced, minor wear to feet, minor to moderate crazing and discoloration to dial, minor cracks to base panel, very minor repair to proper left front foot. Unknown working condition.

Literature: See MESDA Craftsman Database (ID 4207-10228) for another example attributed to Johann Thomas Welfare with figured tiger maple case and Ludwig Eberhart-attributed works.
Provenance: Henry E. Vogler, Salem, North Carolina. Thence by descent.
Miss Jane Welfare, Salem, North Carolina (daughter of Christian Daniel Welfare).
Catalogue Note: This is only the second recorded Salem, North Carolina diminuitive tall-case clock. At the time the clock was initially documented by MESDA (S-1494), the case was believed to have been made by Christian Daniel Welfare while working in the shop of his brother, Johann Thomas Welfare. Current thinking, however, points to Christian Daniel as possibly the dial painter, and his brother, Johann Thomas as the probable cabinetmaker. Regardless, the present clock is undoubtedly of Salem, North Carolina origin and likely a Welfare brothers’ collaboration. It remained in the Welfare family as a treasured object, passing to Christian Daniel’s daughter, Jane Welfare, who willed it to a Vogler family member at the turn of the 20th century.

Artist Biography

ARTIST BIO: Johann Thomas Welfare (also spelled Wohlfahrt) born December 6, 1792 in Salem, North Carolina. He died January 2, 1830 in Salem. His parents were Jacob and Elisabeth Schneider m.n. Wohlfahrt. Johann married Johanna Salome Christmann in 1820; she died November 1821. He then married Mary Towle in 1823 the daughter of Samuel and Elisabeth Emerson m.n. Towle. Johann was a cabinetmaker, gunstocker, gunsmith.

Credit Line

Frank and Carol Holcomb Purchase Fund