In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the art of pictorial marquetry or inlay work was widespread in Italy as a decoration for studies, other rooms and monastic choir stalls; a fair number of these marquetry pictures show clocks, almost always of the type known as monastic alarm clocks. The simple structural framework is kept at a distance from the wall against which it is standing. The train has three wheels, of which the main one has four crossings and carries the winding drum, there being two cords, one for winding and the other for the weight. The escape wheel has a lantern pinion, and the arrangement for striking the alarm consists of a simple winding drum which, when released, vibrates a vertical verge-type arbor to shake a platform which holds a bell. The clock dial is of the rotating, 24-hour type with Roman figures, and has a series of holes in its edge in which a pin is placed to free the alarm as required. The foliot is S-shaped and has two small weights to regulate the period of oscillation. Later marquetry pictures show clocks which are not unlike this. The structure is of iron or brass and always very simple; occasionally, wood is used in parts of the structure. The train has two or three wheels, and the dial always rotates through 24 hours; the time controller is of the foliot or balance type. Few clocks of this kind have survived. Two in private collections in Italy are comparatively well known. The first, completely in brass, is in the High Gothic style with three wheels, a circular balance and a catherine-wheel alarm. It also has a mechanism, now almost entirely missing, with which it could strike a single blow at regular intervals, presumably every hour. It can be dated about the middle of the 15th century. The second, of iron and brass, is late 15th century, and has an alarm of the oscillating type and a foliot regulator.