The earliest portable French clocks retained elements of the Gothic style in their form, most notably in the construction and shape of the domed top section over the bell. Nicolas Morel vas one of the seven makers who petitioned for the establishment of a Corporation for horologists in 1544. In the National Archives in Paris(étude XIX, file 265, fol.5vo-7ro), the inventory drawn up after the death of his first wife, Spire de Fons, in 1534 is preserved, which coincidentally included a small gilt-metal dock in a fitted case. Morel remarried immediately, but his second wife, Martine de Moutonvillier, died only four years later in January 1548. He vas evidently a man of some wealth, judging from his purchase of two vineyards at Sceaux and Clichy. Literat,ire: For further details and a transcription of the inventory see: Catherine Cardinal, La Montre, Fribourg, 1985, pp.16, 19, 20, 228. Clocks of similar form and period are also illustrated and described in Tardy, Vol.I, La Pendule Française, Paris 1981, pp. 45-65. From the mid 16th. century, French makers ceased almost completely to make their movements largely from iron, preferring to use brass for both plates and wheels. This particular dock, constructed without the use of a single screw, and with considerable Gothic influence remaining both in the case and the movement, is a remarkable survivor.