French Gilt Bronze and Tortoiseshell Boulle Mantel Clock. 

Condition: No pendulum. 

Size: 14 1/4 x 6 1/4 x 28 in. 

Mantel clocks are relatively small house clocks traditionally placed on the shelf, or mantel, above the fireplace. The form, first developed in France in the 1750s, can be distinguished from earlier chamber clocks or contemporary carriage clocks of similar size due to a lack of carrying handles. In the beginning mantel clocks were often highly ornate, decorative works, constructed from a combination of ormolu, porcelain, and wood. One of the most common and valued types of mantel clocks are the French Empire-style timepieces. An important evolution of the form was Simon Willard’s shelf clock (also known as the half clock and the Massachusetts shelf clock), which was a relatively economical clock produced by his celebrated Roxbury Street workshop, in Boston, Massachusetts, around the first decade of the 19th Century, a direct correlation to the banjo clock he invented. In contrast to wall clocks, whose movements were attached to the backboard, the shelf clock had its movement supported by a seat board. Willard’s shelf clocks were produced until the 1830s, and although the company revolutionized clock manufacturing with their practices regarding labor division and using multiple previously molded parts, the shelf clocks were not popular when they first came out. The Connecticut clockmaker and inventor Eli Terry popularized mantel clock ownership among common American people in the 1840s, which led to a renewed appreciation of the older European styles. Today, traditionally styled mantel clocks are less common, and are often smaller or made for use on a desk, with modern pieces often functioning more as alarm clocks than decorative objects and frequently digital as opposed to analog.

No pendulum.