Cartel clock
A French wall clock dressed in swirling gilt bronze, where the case was the star and a small pendulum movement hid behind the dial.
What is a cartel clock?
A cartel clock is a decorative wall clock that first appeared in France in the early 18th century. The Fitzwilliam Museum's terminology describes it as usually spring-driven and set in a gilt bronze or carved wood frame that narrows to a point at the bottom. Merriam-Webster adds that the design is typically asymmetrical.
The word comes from French cartel, which could mean decorative scrollwork or a framed hanging clock. Merriam-Webster traces it back to Italian cartella, a slab or frieze with room for an inscription, and the Miramare Castle museum in Trieste glosses the Italian root simply as a sign. The Miramare museum also notes that the type was originally mostly French.
How it works
Behind all the ornament is a fairly compact movement. Because the clock hangs on a wall rather than standing on the floor, there is no room for a long pendulum and heavy weights. Instead, a coiled spring supplies the power and a short pendulum regulates it, as the Miramare museum notes in describing the type as a short-pendulum wall clock.
Some cartels also strike. The Miramare example, for instance, sounds both the hours and the quarters. Enamel work was often part of the package: the Rijksmuseum's cartel with a Julien Le Roy movement carries an enameler's signature dated 1741 alongside the clockmaker's name.
Museum records show how much craft went into the parts you never see. The Wallace Collection lists gilt bronze, glass, steel, oak, brass and vitreous enamel in one of its cartels, along with silk for the pendulum suspension. These were heavy objects too: the Met estimates its Caffieri cartel, about 115 cm tall, weighs around 45 kg (100 lb).
See also: how numerals and hands are laid out on a dial on OnlineClock.app.
History: a clock as a work of sculpture
The cartel belongs to the rococo style of Louis XV's France, and the case mattered as much as the clock. Making a fine one took a team: the Miramare museum lists designers, sculptors, founders, gilders and clockmakers among the trades involved. The movement maker, the bronze caster and the enameler were often separate masters who each signed their part.
Some cartels were made to fit the room they hung in. The Wallace Collection suggests that one of its examples may originally have been meant for a shaped cartouche in the wall paneling of an alcove. The fashion outlasted the high rococo: the Miramare clock dates from the late 18th century, and its scrolling case is simpler than the most lavish cartels of the period. The Wallace Collection lists a separate spring maker, Guillaume Blakey, beside its movement maker, a small sign of how finely the work was divided.
Famous makers and examples
Jacques Caffieri (1678-1755) is the name most linked to cartel cases. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes him as a master of the rococo and one of the leading bronze casters under Louis XV, with a royal privilege that let him both cast and gild bronze in his own workshop, two processes that guild rules normally kept in separate premises. The Met's highly asymmetrical cartel, made around 1745-49, is engraved Caffieri fecit on the scroll at its lower tip and now holds a movement dated 1756 by Ferdinand Berthoud, the original having been lost.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam owns a Caffieri cartel of about 1741 with a movement by Julien Le Roy and enamel by Antoine-Nicolas Martinière. Its case shows Diana seated on clouds reaching toward the sleeping shepherd Endymion, who lies with his staff and dog, while Cupid watches from the clouds above the dial. At 64.5 cm tall it is a little over half the height of the Met's example. The Wallace Collection in London has one with a movement by Jean-Jacques Fiéffé (died 1770), topped by a huntsman with a spear and a hound chasing a winged dragon.
How to recognize one
A cartel hangs on the wall, has no long trunk or pendulum box, and is framed by a cast metal or carved case that does most of the visual work. Look for rococo scrolls, shells, leaves and flowers, often arranged off-center, and a case that comes to a point or flourish beneath the dial.
Many cartels are crowned or framed by figures, such as the goddess Diana or a huntsman with his hound. Signatures can appear in several places: on the dial, on the movement and sometimes cast or engraved into the bronze itself.
Marks on the metal can help date a case. The Met's Caffieri cartel is struck with a crowned C, a control mark applied to bronze and alloyed metal objects in Paris from 1745 to 1749. Be aware, too, that dial, movement and case are not always the same age: the Met's clock received its present movement years after the case was made, and the Rijksmuseum's example bears later inscriptions dated 1816, 1895 and 1947.
See also: how wall, shelf and floor clocks differ on OnlineClock.app.
Questions people ask
Why is it called a cartel clock?
The name comes from the French word cartel, used for decorative scrollwork and for a framed hanging clock. It derives from the Italian cartella, a slab or panel with space for an inscription.
Is a cartel clock the same as a wall clock?
It is one kind of wall clock: specifically the ornate, usually gilt bronze and often asymmetrical French type that began in the early 1700s. Most wall clocks are not cartels.
Who made the best-known cartel clocks?
Museum examples often pair a case by the bronze caster Jacques Caffieri with a movement by a Paris clockmaker such as Julien Le Roy or Ferdinand Berthoud.
Keep exploring
Sources
- Wall clock (cartel), case by Jacques Caffieri, movement by Ferdinand Berthoud (The Met)
- Cartel clock by Caffieri, Le Roy and Martiniere (Rijksmuseum)
- Cartel clocks, terminology (Fitzwilliam Museum)
- Wall pendulum clock, gilt bronze and enamels (Miramare Historical Museum)
- Cartel clock definition and etymology (Merriam-Webster)
- Cartel clock by Jean-Jacques Fieffe (Wallace Collection via Google Arts and Culture)