Cartel clock (one of a pair)
Case possibly by André Charles Boulle French
Movement by Jean Baptiste III Baillon French
Not on view
The original repeating movement of the wall clock, now replaced, was very practical. It would strike the nearest hour on demand when the attached strings were pulled, allowing the owner to hear the time in the dark. The cases with their trelliswork and rosette pattern in brass and blue-stained horn are each other’s opposites: the clock with a horn ground inlaid with brass and the barometer with a brass ground inlaid with horn. This marquetry is often referred to as Boulle work after the French royal cabinetmaker André Charles Boulle (1642-1732) who was a true master of this technique and to whom clock cases of this design have been attributed.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
