Glass plate skeleton clocks were exclusively a French creation, they were almost all unsigned but were probably made by the same manufacturer. Often the clocks ran for a month or more on a single winding owing to the outsized great wheel with the spring barrel set into its centre. In all of these clocks the bushes or bearings for the wheel pivots are inserted into the drilled glass plate which acts as the front frame whilst a small brass vertical bridge at the back provides pivot holes for the rear wheel pivots. On all glass plate clocks the wheel-work is of the highest order and extraordinarily thin, some being only 0.4mm.
The glass frame could either be plain or decorated; some examples have foliate gilding, some with applied foliate ormolu mounts. Another weight-driven example exists engraved in an identical fashion to the present clock at the Muse des Techniques, C.N.A.M., Paris.
Of the surviving examples it is not uncommon to find that a bottom corner of the glass has been damaged as in the present example and for this to have been reinforced by an additional supporting bracket.