Hello Babbette.
Thank you for sending mearto.com your family clock for appraisal. It is my pleasure to do this for you...
TITLE:
Art Nouveau, Dore bronze, ormolu and Sevres-style painted panel, dual spring powered, time and strike mantel clock, Unsigned by the clockmaker, retailed by Harris & Shafer Jewelers of Washington D.C. and made in France, circa 1890-1910...
DESCRIPTION:
Case - 14" x 8" Dore bronze (gilt spelter), French made mantel clock with a waisted case having a gilt broken arch pediment with a foliate golden finial above and a painted small panel just below. Dore bronze and ormolu foliage form the sides of the upper case and enclose the centered, glazed brass, egg-and-dart decorated, dial bezel. Below the dial is a shield-shaped painted panel with two cherubs enclosed by Dore bronze acanthus leaves. The base rests on curled foliate feet with a medallion centered in the front apron in a Fleur de-Lys design. The sides of the case are not shown but usually have painted panels as well...
DIAL: White enameled dial with Roman hours, gold closed minute ring, landscape painted scene in the dial center, brass Fleur-de-Lys hands and a Brocot aperture @12 for altering the speed of the movement...
MOVEMENT: Round solid brass plate movement connected with tubular pillars which are pinned at the back plate, anchor escapement, steel cut pinions, steel arbors, and no evidence of an outside countwheel (makes this movement post 1880 at the earliest). Short pendulum rod with attached brass bob would hang from the Brocot pendulum suspension seen at the upper end of the back plate and slip through the fork-like crutch (seen in place). The movement is spring powered, of eight day duration and striking a coiled cathedral gong on the hour and half hour. The movement appears to be unsigned....
Condition: In very good condition with no major damage. No dial fractures. Case has its original gilding over the white metal (spelter) case, worn in a few small areas (to be expected). Movement is typical of circa 1900+/-. The Period of the Art Nouveau era which stressed nature, both flora and fauna, was circa 1880- c.1910. This case design is typical of that era in France.
Please feel free to write with any questions or comments.
Best,
David