Tall case clock,

ca. 1760–70

<p> Rittenhouse established his clockmaking business in 1751 on the farm in Norriton, Pennsylvania, where he lived until moving to nearby Philadelphia, and eventually became eighteenth-century Pennsylvania’s most accomplished clock- and instrument-maker. An avid astronomer, he built complicated astronomical clocks and orreries, one of the most important of which arrived at Princeton shortly after it was completed in 1770. As the engraved inscription, “Norriton,” on the face of this clock indicates, it was produced earlier in his career, when Rittenhouse designed relatively plain clocks with walnut cases. The clock has a remarkably steady provenance; it descended in the family of the donor, and was used in their home outside Philadelphia, from the date of its manufacture until the house was demolished in 1964. </p>