About 

All of these 1815 references offer evidence that the Washington clocks were marketed in America from France for the first time to 

celebrate the United States’ glorious victory in the war of 1812 and the ensuing peace after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.

In this context the Washington clocks can be read as allegories for a renewed sense of national purpose and identity, as well

harbingers of the next chapter in American political life: the Era of Good Feelings, a period associated with the years of the

Monroe presidency (1817-1825) and marked by a national mood of unity (E Pluribus Unum) and the lack of partisan factions. We

had fought one revolution for our political freedom and now another for our commercial freedom. And Washington, the

father of our nation, whose exploits and attributes were already engraved in the minds of all Americans, stood in 1815 as the great

unifying symbol of the nation. A second meaning can be established only in the context of the date they were first produced and the

circumstances that may have spurred their manufacture. Until recently, dating of the Washington clocks, especially when they are

thought of as memorial clocks, has tended to be in the first decade of the 1800s, closer to the actual death of George Washington.

Research into the Dubuc Washington clocks by Lara Pascali in 2006-2007 while a graduate student in the Winterthur Program

in Early American Culture proves that this earlier dating is inaccurate. Pascali

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"pendules de chiminée" "pendules a sujets" (subject clocks)

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Fletcher was a prominent Philadelphia retailer who traveled to Paris, manufacturered silverplate and jewelry, and also imported clocks, watches and fancy goods, as can be seen from his trade card  below. 

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The French state set up two separate guilds to oversee production: the fondeurs-ciseleurs (casters and chasers) and the ciseleurs-doreurs (chasers and gilders).

• Caster

• Chiseller/Chaser

• Bronzier/Gilder

• Movement Maker 

• Dial Enamelist

• Engine turner

• Retailer

From his workshop in rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth he began specialising in the production of clock cases which especially thrived after the abolition of the guilds during the French Revolution. This meant that Reiche could now create every aspect of a clock case, employing a team of workmen from modellers, casters and chasers to marble workers. https://www.richardreddingantiques.com/artworks/categories/94/9913/