“Warranted if well used. N.B. The public may be assured that this kind of Clock will run as long without repairs and be as durable and accurate for keeping time as any kind of Clock whatever.” These clocks are owned by D. Thomas Moore, Esq., of Westbury, Long Island. [Illustration: Illus. 362.—French Clock, about 1800.] From the time when such mantel clocks were manufactured in great numbers, the fact that they were cheap and good time-keepers put the tall clock out of the market, and its manufacture practically died out soon after, so that but few tall clocks were made later than 1815-1820. Illustration 362 shows a French clock with onyx pillars, and elaborate Empire brasses. The large ornaments at the side of the dial are of wood gilt. The middle of the dial is occupied by a beautifully wrought design in brass, of an anvil and grindstone, each with a little Cupid. Upon the quarter-hour one Cupid sharpens his arrow at the grindstone, running the grindstone with his foot upon a treadle, and at every hour the other Cupid strikes the anvil with his hammer the necessary number of strokes. A brass figure of a youth with a bow stands below the dial, in front of the mirror in the back of the clock. The base is of black marble. I have seen several clocks similar with the onyx pillars, but none with such beautiful, hand-wrought brass in the face and upon the case. CHAPTER XII LOOKING-GLASSES [Illustration] A STRONG distinction was made in America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries between mirrors and looking-glasses; the name “mirror” was applied to a particular kind of glass, either convex or concave, and one old authority states that “a mirror is a circular convex glass in a gilt frame.” Looking-glasses appear in inventories in this country as early as 1650, and in 1658 William Bartlett of Hartford left no less than ten, the dearest valued at one pound. In 1670 the Duke of Buckingham brought Venetian workmen to England, and established glass works in Lambeth; but up to that date the looking-glasses occasionally mentioned in inventories must have been made in Venice. Some of the records are “a great looking glass,”—“looking glass with brasses,”—“great looking glass of ebony,”—“an olive wood diamond cut looking glass,”—and “a looking glass with a walnut tree frame.” The glass usually had the edge finished with a slight bevelling about an inch wide, made by hand, of course, which followed the outline of the inside of the frame. [Illustration: Illus. 363.—Looking-glass, 1690.]