Terry Murphy

In the fall of 2004  I went to the Peabody-Exeter Museum for an exhibit and I bought the previous exhibit art book… “The Masterworks of John and Thomas Seymour.” I missed that exhibit, but the book impressed me as I read it over Christmas. That same Christmas, my daughter came home from college and wanted to make a present in the shop, a couple of days before Christmas.  The only way that we could pull that off in such a short time frame, is on the lathe.  We made something out of Honduran mahogany with a French polish.

She was stunned by the beauty of the wood and the finish and I said to her… “You haven’t seen anything”.  So I pulled out the sleeve of veneers that a friend had given me in 1984 that came from a cabinet maker in NYC from the early 1900's. I wet the Mahogany crotch  and burled Birch veneers with turpentine.  We were both stunned by the  beauty.  I had not looked at those since they were given to me, 20 year prior.  

Between those two events, it was clear that I was to build a clock…… a “Seymour Tall Case Roxbury Style clock!"
I began procuring parts and developing the plans from the photos in that book. The originals would have been made of Cuban Mahogany and it just made sense that I should try and do the same. I could find small pieces and was able to make the top (or hood), but could not find big enough pieces to make the waist or the base.

A friend called one day looking for some oak to use in the bed of a truck he was restoring. I did not have any and he said, "I guess I will have to use that Mahogany”.  I thought I had an idea of the wood he had store-housed, but didn’t know of the Mahogany.  He explained that he had bought the planks that had the name of a WWII ship routed on to them.  I knew that the Navy commandeered all of the Mahogany in the Florida Keys for their ships...and it is the only pace in the US that Cuban Mahogany grows.  I asked if it was heavy and dense like Oak and he said….Well yes!  I told him it was likely Cuban and he could not use that in the bed of a truck.  He asked what he should do with it and I said...”Make some beautiful furniture, or something special, since it is beyond rare.”  He said his wife didn’t want any more furniture and could I use it?  Well…. That is how I got the pieces large enough to finish the clock.

I continue to be awestruck by the precision and craftsmanship of the Seymour's, and others, exhibited in their works in the late1700's,given the tools of the time.  We, of course, have an arsenal of tools at our disposal today.
The clock was finished in Jan 2026.
Clock movement was built by David Lindow in 2005
Moon Dial was painted by Kathi Edward of the Dial House II in Georgia  
Cuban Mahogany from WWII ship...Sgt Joseph Muller