George Harris

Mantel clocks are small clocks that are designed to sit on a shelf or fireplace mantel. The earliest examples were developed in France in the mid-1700s. Mantel clocks--or "mantle" as they are sometimes spelled--are mechanical clocks that use a pendulum to regulate the time.

If you buy a SethThomas black mantle clocks, often the label on the back says adamantine, which was their process, their product for a type of celluloid veneer that would be put on these black mantel clocks to make them look either like marble, or like rare exotic woods. These were also made out of iron, where you would have a similar case, heavy like marble but made out of iron, that would be done with a very glossy, black shiny paint, trying to simulate marble as originated with the French marble clocks of the same period.