News

Novelty Clocks June 2010

We mark the passage of time in so many different ways. With food we break our fast, have lunch and supper. The Sun's journey of course, with the morning, noon and night. There are the seasons, our significant dates like birthdays; high days and holy days like Christmas and Easter. It is said that the past is another country, and the shady road of nostalgia is littered with all those what might have beens.

There is an irony that when you enter our National Clock Museum at the Town Basin, passing past the ghost of Archie Clapham by the door, time will seem to stand still as a thousand, different types of timepieces stare back at you. Yes, some clocks actually have eyes, each one revolving independently, telling you both the minute and the hour. They are called "rolling eye clocks "and early ones in good condition are very collectable.

They are part of the excellent collection of novelty clocks at the Clock Museum. They are so diverse and occasionally “oddball"it is difficult to know where to begin. I would like to state here that some of my best friends are German. Initially they strike you as a rather austere race, whose humour is more Saxon than Anglo. But if you look closely at the novelty clocks on display made by these clever people, they do have a metaphorical twinkle in their eye.

Take the novelty clock the Whistling Man. He was a real character from Bavaria and there is a museum dedicated to him in Munich. He survived the trenches of the First World War and his real name is Carl Valentine. He was a man of many talents being an actor, musician and comic. When you wind him up his cheeky, wooden face goes from side to side and his pursed lips whistle the tune "Ach du lieber Augustin ". It is a traditional Viennese song, originating during a plague in the 1700s. Legend has it that after a night on the town, Augustin decided to have a nap by the side of the road. The corpse patrol came across him the next morning and threw his inert body onto the plague cart. Fortunately Augustin woke up just in time before they tossed his body into the lime pit. A rumour quickly spread that a liberal imbibing of wine would save you from the plague!

Other German novelty clocks include a music box featuring a monkey, a dog and a juggler. There are birds in cages that twitter ( and possibly even blog), a ferris wheel , Dutch windmills, Swiss weather clocks and an amazing trapeze artist. The novelty clock section of Claphams Clock Museum is understandably the area that young children love the best. Here is action and noise and mystery and pressing a button can produce some startling results! Their first lesson in classical music might begin with the alarm clock that plays the 1812 Overture! This being NZ the sound of a busy farmyard will strike a chord with some. Then there is the ball-bearing clock, the gay Gordons in their mini kilts (too much) and the paper mache Victorian bulldog that has nothing to do with clocks but good to frighten the hell out of a naughty little tike!

Finally a clock that has hypnotic qualities and fascinates all ages is the swinging ball-cord pendulum clock. Look at it long enough and you will start to join the independent rolling eye clocks! I could go on, but suffice it to say that our wonderful collection of clocks, the largest in the country, range from the sublime to the gor blimey. They are there for both the young, and the young at heart.

Which are you?