Posted 12 years ago
Ilikeart
(200 items)
What has happen with the craft of natural art when things were made from wood? Most of the things that are made today are made out of synthetic materials. I use to live in a wooden house and I used to be able to smell the wood. It seems that we have lost the natural things in life; Like this antiique mantel clock.( Longing for the natural way of life ).
American clocks of this era were the equivalent of "synthetics". They were relatively inexpensive (cheap) copies of European (most French) clocks. Instead of cut and highly polished marble, slate and onyx, these enameled wood case mantel clocks were made to look like their expensive counter-parts. Instead of Bronze ornaments and statuettes, American clocks extensively used white metal (zinc alloy aka spelter) castings plated with copper, brass and sometimes even paint. Seth Thomas took things to a whole new level with their Adamantine (celluloid) finishes. Truly a synthetic. Faster and cheaper...we're just further along a path started a long time ago...at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This is arguably the natural way of life in our economy.