CHICAGO, IL.- On October 14-15, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will offer a massive carved oak case clock so monumental that it has to be moved in parts, barely clearing the ceilings of the auction house’s galleries when fully assembled. The clock, standing over ten feet tall, is estimated at $50,000 / 70,000 and comes from a prominent corporate art collection. It was obtained in the early 2000s when that corporation acquired a smaller corporation and its collection.

Oversized clocks like the one being offered on October 14-15 were commissioned during the late 19th century by wealthy American industrialists caught up in the fashion for fantasy furniture and Renaissance revival adornment, on a scale called for by the vast new homes of the Gilded Age. Most were made in England and tend to be unsigned or signed spuriously. All have complicated movements, and while many feature a moon phase dial, this version has an automaton above the dial that depicts four monks in an interior.

This type of phenomenal craftsmanship was once appreciated by all, and a clock of this caliber might be one of the most significant investments a family would make when furnishing their home. Objects of rare beauty were made one-of-a-kind by an expert hand, not mass-produced in factories only to be assembled at home by the buyer. These extraordinary works of functional art drew thousands of visitors to fairs like the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, where the latest in aesthetic innovations made their debut and when a nearly identical clock was exhibited.

The case is heavily carved to depict cherub masks, grotesque masks, grapevines, a coat-of-arms, seated putti, foliate scrolls, female caryatids and lions. The base is worked with a profile medallion dedicated to “Worshipful Master Clock Makers Company” and the spurious date “24th Septr. 1683.” Each of the clock’s three weights is elaborately painted and its pendulum is cast in the form of a winged figure over the moon and clouds. Other monumental carved case clocks that have come to the market have sold in excess of $100,000 at auction. Yet another appears today in the collection of the Lightner Museum, St. Augustine, Florida.