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This is a beautiful antique French red tortoiseshell and cut brass Boulle mantel clock on stand, circa 1870 in date.

This clock has a fabulous brass and enamel dial and a bell striking movement. The case and stand is of beautiful Boulle, which is red tortoiseshell with cut brass inlaid decoration, and it is applied with scrolled ormolu mounts.

The movement is stamped: A Bernoud Paris C.D with the serial number 459.

It is rare to find a Boulle clock with its original Boulle plinth, and even rarer to find one with the Boulle work in such pristine condition.

The clock is complete with original pendulum, bell and key.

Condition:
The clock movement has been expertly restored and is in working order.

Dimensions in cm:
Height 44 x Width 28.6 x Depth 17 - Clock with Plinth
Height 37 x Width 23 x Depth 12 - Clock
Height 7 x Width 28.6 x Depth 17 - Stand

Dimensions in inches:
Height 1 foot, 5 inches x Width 11 inches x Depth 7 inches - Clock with Plinth
Height 1 foot, 3 inches x Width 9 inches x Depth 5 inches - Clock
Height 3 inches x Width 11 inches x Depth 7 inches - Stand

André-Charles Boulle(1642 – 1732), was the French cabinetmaker who is generally considered to be the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry. His fame in marquetry led to his name being given to a fashion of inlaying known as Boulle (or in 19th-century Britain, Buhl work).

Boulle appears to have been originally a painter, since the first payment to him by the crown of which there is any record (1669) specifies ouvrages de peinture. He was employed for many years at Versailles, where the mirrored walls, the floors of wood mosaic, the inlaid paneling and the marquetery furniture in the Cabinet du Dauphin were regarded as his most remarkable work. These rooms were long since dismantled and their contents dispersed, but Boulle's drawings for the work are in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

His royal commissions were numerous, as we learn both from the Comptes des B timents du Roi and from the correspondence of Louvois. Not only the most magnificent of French monarchs, but foreign princes and the great nobles and financiers of his own country crowded to him with commissions, and the mot of the abbé de Marolles, Boulle y lourne en ovale, has become a stock quotation in the literature of French cabinetmaking.

Ormolu (from French 'or moulu', signifying ground or pounded gold) is an 18th-century English term for applying finely ground, high-carat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze.The mercury is driven off in a kiln leaving behind a gold-coloured veneer known as 'gilt bronze'.

The manufacture of true ormolu employs a process known as mercury-gilding or fire-gilding, in which a solution of nitrate of mercury is applied to a piece of copper, brass, or bronze, followed by the application of an amalgam of gold and mercury. The item was then exposed to extreme heat until the mercury burned off and the gold remained, adhered to the metal object.

No true ormolu was produced in France after around 1830 because legislation had outlawed the use of mercury. Therefore, other techniques were used instead but nothing surpasses the original mercury-firing ormolu method for sheer beauty and richness of colour. Electroplating is the most common modern technique. Ormolu techniques are essentially the same as those used on silver, to produce silver-gilt (also known as vermeil).

Our reference: 06163w

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