Mantle clock carved of anthracite coal, 12" wide, 8 1/2" tall. Everything except the central clockworks is coal.
This was made by noted African-American coal artist and sculptor Charles Edgar Patience.The work of Patience (1906-1972)
was exhibited in many places, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian. He carved in coal a bulldog for Mack Truck,
the official shield of Barbados when it gained independence in 1966, and a two-ton anthracite alter for the King's College chapel.
Lady Bird Johnson owned a Patience clock and a set of bookends in the White House. At a 1970 WWII commemoration in Holland, the 101st Airborne
presented a Patience jeweled clock and a string of anthracite "pearls" to Queen The Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton, PA
exhibits various Patience sculptures, including busts of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.