Antique clocks—from the sun clock in antiquity to the clocks created by the École Boulle—combined elegance and technology to offer a range of exceptional wall clocks. With its pendulum, escapement, and minute hand, the wall clock reflected the great classics of each style and epoch: the sober lines of the Régence style, the rocaille vocabulary of the Louis XV style, the neoclassical aesthetics of the Louis XVI style, the elegant sobriety of the Directoire style, and so on.
Adorned with finely crafted and gilded bronze motifs, wall clocks were embellished with Boulle marquetry, vernis Martin (varnish), copper, brass, and tortoiseshell to accompany passing time. Placed on a mantelpiece or attached to a wall with a bracket, wall clocks enjoyed a veritable golden age during the eighteenth century.
