=Competition with French Elaboration.=--During the latter decades of the eighteenth and the opening years of the nineteenth centuries, the influx of French fashions had a considerable influence on the furniture designers of this country. What Chippendale had commenced, Sheraton continued, each according to his point of view. So great was the effect that there is actually an English Empire period entirely dependent on the classic interpretation of the French school. To treat of French clocks would occupy a space that is denied in this outline study of English work. But that they are of paramount importance cannot be denied. The French craftsman, as he always did, realized the possibilities of his subject. His cases are elaborate and imaginative in conception. His fertility of invention is remarkable. On the whole it must be admitted that the case is the weakest part of the English clock. The case-maker never quite realized his opportunities. He might have done so much better. There is a stability and solid, almost stolid, soberness that might have been lightened, so one thinks at times. But on the other hand, when the Frenchman is bad in design, his exuberance of ornament and headstrong imagination seem too lurid for a sober clock which only records ordinary time. This French influence was world-wide. By the courtesy of the authorities of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, an American clock is illustrated (p. 193), the makers being Savin and Dyer, of Boston. This is in date 1780 to 1800. It is of fine proportions, and the lyre ornament is kept in due reticence. As exemplifying the far-reaching effect that French design had on this country, we reproduce an interesting illustration of a cottager's clock of the early nineteenth century (p. 195). It is really a vase of earthenware made in Staffordshire. On one side is painted in blue a Chinese scene, on the other is a clock-face in imitation of a French dial. But the hands perpetually mark seventeen minutes past eight. In copper lustre-ware this vase with its sham dial served the cottager as something ornamental, although not useful. It is a replica in homely English earthenware of French _finesse_, a cottage echo of the vase-clocks of Sèvres in the apartments at Versailles. The cottager's desire to have a clock was satisfied by the Staffordshire potter. [Illustration: BRACKET CLOCKS. LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Maker, Alexander Cumming (London). Date, 1770. Height, 1 ft. 2 in. Width, 8-1/4 in. Depth, 5-1/4 in. No maker's name. Date, about 1800. Height, 1 ft. 3-3/4 in. Width, 10-1/2 in. Depth, 6-1/4 in. (_By courtesy of Percy Webster, Esq._)] [Illustration: BRACKET CLOCKS. EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY. DATE, ABOUT 1805. Maker, Barraud (London). Height, 17 in. Width, 12 in. Depth, 6 in. Maker, Strowbridge (Dawlish). Height, 16 in. Width, 10 in. Depth, 6-1/2 in.]