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Ormolu clock

Ceramics
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An ormolu clock features gilded bronze mounts on ceramic or other bases, combining timepiece with luxury.

Detailed Definition
In the category of ceramics, ormolu enhances ceramic elements with metallic elegance. Poets use it for themes of time, opulence, and decorative fusion.
Example
Example in poetry:
The ormolu clock — a mantelpiece clock mounted in gilded bronze, typically of French manufacture — appears in poems about the stopped time of great houses and the luxury of beautiful timekeeping; A poem about a Georgian drawing room might describe the ormolu clock: "the gilt bronze gods on either side of the face — Time flanked by allegory, the whole arrangement a philosophical position rendered decorative"; In a Tennysonian interior of suspended grief, the ormolu clock continues to tick while everything else is held in stasis: "the clock's ormolu cupids smiled as they always smiled, measuring a time in which nothing moved"; The French origin of most ormolu clocks — their cases often by the finest Parisian bronziers — gives poems about England's relationship with French luxury a specific object; A poem about a house sale might describe the ormolu clock being wound for the last time: "the auctioneer's clerk wound it before the viewing — it struck the hour for bidders who would take it elsewhere"; In a poem about time and beauty, the ormolu clock concentrates both: "the face telling the hour, the case telling the craftsman's argument about what time deserves to be held in."
Additional Notes
The ormolu clock — ormolu being a gilded bronze or brass alloy (from the French or moulu, ground gold) used to make decorative mounts — occupies an important place in the decorative arts as an object that combines clockmaking, metalwork, and often ceramics into a single luxury piece. Clock cases were frequently made in Sèvres or Meissen porcelain, or the porcelain plaques and figures were incorporated into bronze clock cases. As an object in poetry and fiction, the ormolu clock almost invariably marks the aristocratic or very wealthy interior and carries heavy associations with the measurement and passage of time.
Also Known As
Ormolu-mounted clock
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