Today you may get antique clocks almost in every antique shop. Collecting of antique clocks is mostly a hobby for rich persons.
The first steps in creating mantel clocks were found in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The first stuff for clocks was iron and the winding mechanism of such clocks was based on weights. The first mantel clocks were alike to tower clocks. They had the same layout and elements.
In the XV century period clocks were inserted walls' consoles. Wooden console became a component of the body of clocks after a few centuries and it was stylized to the entire clocks ensemble. Of course, in the Renaissance epoch and later it was one of the most important parts of a room's style. Every home adhered to the trend that was fashionable during the age and a clock was a part of the whole design ensemble of the house. The most prominent asters of applied art such as Roentgen, Goutier and Benemann, also worked over the artistic appearance of their clocks. They worked on their personal models and created clocks in the unique prototypes. Only at the end of the XVIII century the copies of the most remarkable models were found.