Antique Ormolu Clocks between £0 and £0
A clock in a gilt-bronze case, or with gilt mounts applied to marble, porcelain or timber, made to stand on a chimneypiece as an ornament as much as a timekeeper.
What Ormolu Clocks Are
Ormolu means gilded bronze or brass. In this category the gilding is the decorative point, either as a case cast wholly in gilt metal or as separately cast mounts fixed to another material. French origin is close to a defining condition: 505 of the 790 titles on Sellingantiques say french, and Paris is named in 45.
The form you'll meet most often is the mantel clock, mid to late 19th century. Mantel appears in 258 titles and the variant spelling mantle in a further 98, and dealers use the two interchangeably. Marble is the commonest partner material, followed by porcelain, and 46 titles specify Louis XVI against 51 for rococo.
Beyond the plain mantel clock the archive splits into recognisable groups. Marble-and-ormolu clocks, often as garnitures with matching side pieces, make up roughly a fifth to a quarter. Porcelain-panelled clocks in the Sèvres taste account for about a sixth. Boulle cases in tortoiseshell with cut-brass inlay form a small, steady group, and portico and cartel wall clocks together stay under a tenth.
Dating is loose. Of 462 listings with a clean year, the largest single bucket is simply 19th Century, with Victorian and Regency adding more imprecision. Where decades are stated they cluster in the second half of the 19th century, the 1880s ahead of the 1890s. Only 14 listings are placed in the 18th century.
What Sets Them Apart
Completeness does more work than anything else. A clock with its matching side pieces sits above the same clock alone, and the 58 garniture and clock set titles cluster in the upper half of the range, several of them with candelabra specified, one set running to ten lights.
Then the case material. A plain gilt case sits below one that brings something else with it: specimen and coloured marbles, rouge and sienna, malachite, boulle, champlevé and cloisonné enamel all run high. Painted porcelain panels in the Sèvres manner concentrate well above the middle.
Scale and modelling separate the rest. Large and figural cases take the top of the range, the sculptural subjects among them elephants, lions and Empire allegories, while small, petite and miniature sit low. A named Paris movement pushes a piece upward, and the few ormolu longcase clocks in the whole archive sit at the very top.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for ormolu clocks between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Ormolu clocks have been listed on Sellingantiques since 2007, and more than three hundred have passed through in that time.
Japy Frères·Achille Brocot·Raingo Frères·Samuel Marti·Vincenti·Lenzkirch
The Antique Ormolu Clocks between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Ormolu
- Gilded bronze or brass, used for a whole case or for mounts applied to it. The word covers both here.
- Mounts
- Separately cast gilt fittings fixed to a marble, porcelain or timber case, rather than cast as part of it.
- Garniture
- The clock with its matching side pieces, urns or candelabra, sold as a set. Also written garniture de cheminée.
- Portico clock
- A case shaped like a columned porch, with the movement hung between the uprights.
- Cartel clock
- A wall clock in a cast gilt frame, hung directly with no separate bracket beneath it.
- Four glass, or crystal regulator
- A case glazed on all four sides, so the movement and pendulum stay in view.
- Silk suspension
- An early French arrangement with the pendulum hung on a silk thread instead of a steel spring.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does ormolu actually mean?
Gilded bronze or brass. In clock listings it covers both a case cast entirely in gilt metal and gilt mounts applied to a case made of something else.
Marble and porcelain are the two commonest materials those mounts are fixed to, with boulle and timber behind them.
Are ormolu clocks always French?
Not always, but close to it. Of 790 titles on Sellingantiques, 505 say french, and Paris is named in 45 of them.
The rest are a small minority. English cases with fusee movements and London signatures appear in a handful, and German makers surface in a few Lenzkirch and Ting Tang entries.
Why do dealers spell it mantel and mantle?
Both spellings are in use and mean the same thing: a clock made to stand on a chimneypiece. Mantel appears in 258 titles, mantle in 98.
A few titles manage to use both at once. Searching either way is worth doing.
What is a garniture?
The clock with matching side pieces, usually urns or candelabra, made and sold together as a set for the chimneypiece.
Garnitures and clock sets account for 58 titles and take a disproportionate share of the upper end of the range, including one set with ten-light candelabra.
How old are most of these clocks?
The dated field runs from 1750 to 1960, but the weight of the category is 19th century. Where decades are given they gather in the second half of it, the 1880s the fullest bucket.
Genuine 18th-century material is a fringe, with only 14 listings placed there. The commonest dating of all is the plain phrase 19th Century, used in 199 listings.
Earliest in the archive are a Louis Quinze pendule and a drum-head clock, both at 1750.
Do wall-hung ormolu clocks come up often?
Less often than chimneypiece ones. Cartel appears in 29 titles and wall in 25, against 258 for mantel.
Portico clocks, standing on columns, turn up in 40. Boudoir and drum-head clocks, four-glass regulators and a few bracket forms fill out the remainder.