History

• J.J. Beals worked as a clock cabinetmaker from 1838 until 1874. Magazine advertising for the firm in 1848 stated that the shop also imported a variety of clocks and clock faces from France, England and Germany during this period.
  
  

Considerations

• Early American businesses are difficult to trace concerning partnerships, but Joseph Beals is known to have operated firms with William Beals in 1848. He also owned a store on Haymarket Square in Boston in the 1860s in partnership with his son Elijah J. Beals.
  
  

Identification

• Beals made cases and housing for clocks that used works by other clock manufacturers, including E. Ingraham and Co. A common Beals clock incorporated an architectural steeple design on either side of a glass front door. The Beals store attached paper sales labels with the company logo to commercially manufactured clocks made by other firms.