Foster S. Campos Banjo Clock, George Washington Theme Made in Pembroke, Mass

Typical form with white enamel dial and reverse painted waist and pendulum door. With key and pendulum.

A Surinam-themed Amsterdam long-case clock The Netherlands, 1746-1756, dial signed Nicolaas Weylandt/Amsterdam The case of the clock is made of Rio palisander veneer and snakewood, with the arch showing a painted scene of the harbour of Paramaribo, Fort Zeelandia and Dutch ships in anchorage, the spandrels decorated with figural representations of the four continents, the centre of the dial painted with Mercury, the god of trade, seated on a bale signed VCS (Vereenigde Compagnie Suriname), and one of the barrels bearing the initials “RBS,” on the left the river god of the Surinam river, with a Dutch three-master in the background. Measures: H 259 x W 60 x D 35 cm (case) Diameter 32 cm (clock dial) This exceptionally rare long-case clock probably was ordered by one of the many wealthy families living along the Amsterdam canals that owned or had shares in plantations in Surinam. It’s a successful marriage of the work of an accomplished 18th century Amsterdam clockmaker, a Dutch cabinetmaker working with exotic tropical timbers, a woodcarver familiar with both Dutch Rococo design and Surinamese iconography, and a painter with knowledge, whether first- hand or through other visualisations, of the Paramaribo waterfront. In the production of this Gesamtkunstwerk, only the name of the clockmaker is known: Nicloaas Weylandt (circa 1700-1754), who had a business situated on the Nieuwendijk near the Haarlemmersluis in Amsterdam from 1742 until his death. The case is made of imported timbers from Surinam; Rio-palisander and snakewood. A very similar clock-case, veneered in walnut, is illustrated in J. Zeeman, De Nederlandse staande klok...