When Louis XIV died in 1715, his great-grandson Louis XV, next in line to the throne, was only five. Until he came of age, the kingdom was ruled by Louis XIV's nephew, the Regent, Philippe d'Orléans. During the Regency (1715-1723) an important change in style gradually occurred. Just as the period was a political and social parenthesis between the reign of Louis XIV and that of Louis XV, it also represented a transitional period in art, from the architectural rigor of the first era - of which the typical horological representation was the rectangular "Religieuse" clock with its strict lines and ceremonious decor - to the exuberant rococo style of the second, which reached its apogee with the Louis XV cartel.

The Regency style contained all the features of the future Louis XV style, but in a latent form. During this period the bracket cartel clock remained symmetrical in form, but the straight lines of the Louis XIV clock began to melt, giving way to gentler, more curving shapes, often referred to as the "violin" silhouette. The copper, ebony, and tortoiseshell marquetry of the previous era, made way for wood veneering in rosewood, kingwood, amaranth and "bois de violette". The cases were ornamented with finely chiseled gilt bronze.

(credit: antiquorum.com)  
_

The less rigorous and more fluid designs reflected a loosening of French society at this time:

<<C'est le joli temps de la Régence / Où l'on fit tout, excepté pénitence>> (chanson populaire)

The clock started to strain against the constraints of it's rectangular form:

(image credit: La Pendule Française 1re partie,   Tardy   Self-published, undated)

Watch here, as the door starts to flare, and be shaped at the bottom, in this example by Mousset á Paris.

The door starts to assume odd shapes, and be caved-in at the bottom:

(image credit: Les Ouvriers Du Temps,   Jean-Dominique Augarde   Antiquorum, undated)

Pay no attention to the hands and the positions of the winding holes in the dial.  This example, from the Wallace Collection, London, is an example of the awful practice of the English replacing French period movements with English Fusee movements.

Now the door starts to assume the typical "balloon" shape:

(image credit: French Clocks in North American Collections   Winthrop Edey   The Frick Collection 1982)  

This clock, by Mynuel á Paris, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Finally, the bracket clock settles into the form that it would hold through the entire Louis XV period:

(image credit: Bordeaux Antiquities)

The door is now balloon shaped, as is the case.  Note that except for a bit of ornament, the clock is still entirely symetrical. Also, the carved steel hands, instead of elaborate gilt ones, are a sign that this is an early example.

The Regence was a transitional period:

(image credit: La Pendule Française 1re partie,   Tardy   Self-published, undated)

As well as awkward transitions, there were idiosyncratic triumphs, as in this bracket clock by Jean-Baptiste Baillon á Paris.  Note the fact, since this is a small clock with a 5" (or so) dial, that the dial can be made of one piece of enamel.  The elaborate multiple piece enamel dials in a gilt surround was dictated by the fact that at this early period, they couldn't successfully make large one-piece enamel dials.  Also note the early use of chased gilt hands.  Here the clock is more fully integrated into it's matching bracket, giving the appearance of a one-piece wall clock.  There is also more use of gilt mounts, which would soon cover the entire wooden frame.  Again, they wanted to make one piece cast bronze clock cases, but design kept ahead of technology, except in smaller examples:

(image credit: Les Ouvriers Du Temps,   Jean-Dominique Augarde   Antiquorum, undated)

This clock is an early example of the cast bronze wall clock that the French call a Cartel.

The case is made of several castings, not yet a one-piece construction.

Next time: The elephant in the room - the invention of the temperature compensation pendulum.

Previously:

Monastic alarms and the beginnings of clockmaking
De Dondi's remarkable astrarium
Early tower clocks
Gothic iron clocks
Rennaisance clocks
Early english lantern clocks
Huygens and the pendulum
Fromanteel's English pendulum clocks
Huygens in Paris
Clement and the recoil escapement
Edward East and the golden age
Thomas Tompion
Daniel Quare
Joseph Knibb
Golden age recap
The balance spring
Paris - Louis Quatorze