Clocks · Clock
Early 19th Century Polychrome Enamel Clock Garniture with Movement
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- Early 19th century
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- France
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- brass, gilt, enamel
- Auction house
- Invaluable auction listings
- Lot
- Lot C15CD15762
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 118, Session I - Traditional Antiques, Jewellery and Fine Art, Aalders Auctions (2026), via Invaluable
- Catalogue title (original)
- Early 19th Century Polychrome Enamel Clock Garniture with Movement, (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Invaluable auction listings (lot Lot C15CD15762), this is a clock, made in France, dated Early 19th century. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass, gilt, enamel. The record is illustrated with 4 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Lot description — Aalders Auctions
by Barraud of Cornhill London, the case and garniture of Continental origin (likely Austrian or French), richly decorated with polychrome enamel with gilt brass maiden supports, the base and holders hand painted with oval reserves depicting robed classical/mythological style figures reclining in wooded landscapes, bordered by Rococo style c-scrolls, foliates and urns, on a sky blue enamel ground, the gilt brass clock case of compressed oval form and surmounted with figure and a lute, the hand painted dial depicting an artist and attendant at an easel, the case back opening to a signed c.1815-20 Barraud of Cornhill London fusee chain movement, #5082, a/f (when tested, the ratchet and click system appears to fail to hold the mainspring tension), height of clock 27cm, height of garnitures 20cm (3)
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
The age of the deadbeat escapement, compensated pendulums and observatory regulators. Domestic clocks spread through the middle classes: English longcase and bracket clocks, French gilt-bronze mantel clocks, Viennese Biedermeier wall clocks, Black Forest painted-shield clocks, and the first American shelf clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Mantel and French pendule clocks
The mantel clock — the French pendule de cheminée — is as much decorative art as timekeeper. From the late seventeenth century Parisian clockmakers worked with cabinet-makers, bronze founders and gilders (ciseleurs-doreurs) to create cases in Boulle marquetry, gilt bronze and marble, while the movements were often supplied by specialist makers. Clocks of the Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI periods, and Empire clocks with allegorical figures, set fashions copied across Europe.
The nineteenth century industrialised the type. The 'Paris movement', a standardised round movement with silk-thread or Brocot suspension and count-wheel striking, was made in huge numbers by firms such as Japy and Vincenti, and fitted into cases of every style and material.
What to look for
- Round 'Paris' movements with makers' stamps (e.g. Japy Frères, Vincenti, S. Marti) and medal marks from exhibitions.
- Suspension type: silk thread (earlier) or Brocot adjustable suspension (after c. 1840).
- Visible Brocot escapement on the dial in later clocks.
- Fire-gilt (mercury) gilding on bronzes versus later electro-gilding.
- Signed dials naming a retailer rather than the movement maker.
Dating clues
- Silk-suspension Paris movements: c. 1800–1850.
- Brocot suspension and visible escapements: after c. 1840.
- Exhibition medal stamps on movements give dates after the medal year.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Anchor (recoil) escapement
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