About 10 years ago now my wife and I stumbled into a quaint little antique shop in a very small tourist town in rural Tasmania, Australia. We were on a wine and cheese tasting tour and between wineries we took a break at a seaside hotel and after lunch wandered around the little town. We weren't in any way into antiques when we went into the antique shop there, but something about the good time we were having on our tour made us interested and we just fell in love with this tiny little antique mantle clock.
This little event was the start of quite an antiquing passion we now enjoy. The antique clock we bought was just so perfect in our home that we started looking more into antiques and antique clocks in particular. It was because of our growing antique clock collection and the fact that they occasionally stopped telling the time that I came into contact with a specialist antique clock repairer and one lazy afternoon (I think all afternoons are lazy ones for antique dealers) he invited me to sit with him in his workshop while he repaired an antique grandfather clock I had brought in.
As he took the casing apart carefully and revealed the rich tapestry of parts making up the internal workings of that clock I was amazed. This is where my interest in antique clock parts has come from. Antique clock parts aren't like regular clock parts as we know them today. They are made of brass, copper and steel and in many cases are handcrafted for particular clocks. And there are no batteries at all amongst antique clock parts. The skill of the clockmaker is what makes an antique clock keep time.
I just wanted to share a little about my fascination with antique clock parts on this blog so that I might inspire a little more interest in antiques in general and the craftsmanship involved in creating antiques and antique clocks. The smell of the timber, the shine of the parts... It's wonderful.
I hope you'll get to enjoy seeing someone work on antique clock parts one day too!
