re: Marquetry Grandfather Clock - 1685

Yes Paul I totally agree.  When I checked and re-wrote the piece this morning to put the post here, I did think it odd about the quality of the marquetry.  But when I originally wrote the piece way back I didn't know much about marquetry.  So I checked the images I used for the designs and yes they are simplistic - see below.  While the flowers are detailed enough, the layering is missing.  May be an apprentice made the clock.

Here's a couple more from a clock by Fromateel - a highly thought of clock maker, though of course he didn't make the case.  It shows the same simplistic designs.

And some more panels below from different clocks .  What is interesting is that some of the flowers and birds look very similar on different clocks.  So may be they were batch made, bought in by the case maker as a complete set of panels, or may be just as flowers and brids etc. that they the let into their cases.  I'll guessing that these clock case makers weren't the same people who made the larger pieces of exceptionally fine marquetry furniture.