Antique Mantel Clocks for sale.
Including English Bracket Fine antique mantel clocks for sale. Antique clocks listed include English antique clocks, French antique clocks, early American clocks, French art deco marble clocks and many other mantle clocks at excellent prices.
Mantel clocks are similar to bracket clocks but both smaller and with less depth. The first mantel date from around 1750-1760. They were made in France and English mantel clocks followed on around ten years later.
The first French mantel clocks were developed from French Regency bracket clocks, developed when similar clocks were produced in Rococo style but without a mounting bracket. It was commonplace to set these clocks on a mantelpiece, which is where the name comes from.
It became customary around 1835 to accompany mantel clocks with a pair of matching ornaments. These remained popular throughout the nineteenth century. It's relatively easy to distinguish English mantel clocks from French ones as the English examples usely have superb mechanisms and and the quality of the movement will shine through.
Clock collecting is more popular than it's ever been and the importance of dating of antique clocks correctly means it has to be an exact science, which it can be providing you have the right index books and the proper experience.
Clock design was heavily influenced in the 1920s and ’30s by Art Deco and clock cases from the period often echo geometric architecture. In Europe, the French and Swiss were the leading producers of Art Deco clocks with the French excelling at fashioning clocks for the mantlepiece; in marble, onyx, brass, glass, and chrome.