This mantelpiece is from Thurlow Lodge, the no-longer-extant Menlo Park mansion of former California governor and US senator Milton Slocum Latham (1827–1882) and his second wife, Mary McMullin. The Lathams commissioned the home’s interior design from the New York City firm Herter Brothers, whose San Francisco outlet catered to prominent patrons such as Mark Hopkins, James Flood, and John D. Spreckels. The Lathams’ choice of the prestigious firm reflected the social and cultural aspirations of Californians who sought to import sophisticated art objects from cosmopolitan New York—or from Paris, where this mantelpiece was carved.

The theme of hunting, historically associated with European royalty and aristocracy, was popular with wealthy Gilded Age businessmen, who were often described as the modern equivalents of medieval barons. The prominent clock spoke to Latham’s time-sensitive professions as a banker and railroad financier.