April 1, 2017
Now that spring has arrived, we are back to our regular hours. That means we are open 10-6 Monday through Saturday and noon-5 on Sunday. The only special hours for the month are that we’ll be closed on the 16th for Easter.
We have a number of recent acquisitions this month. Below are photos of the Victorian drop front desk in walnut with burl veneer that dates from about 1880 and a pair of Renaissance Revival armchairs, also in walnut, from about 1870. The final photo is of our featured acquisition: a Scottish tall case clock. Additional photos of these and other recent acquisitions are on our website
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There doesn’t seem to be a single word to describe someone who loves clocks. The closest thing I’ve seen is horophile, based on horology, which is the science of measuring time and the art of making instruments for indicating time. Whatever the term is (or isn’t!), Bob is one, which is why the clock is our product of the month. This clock features the four seasons; we have a similar one at home that features the four continents (i.e., Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas). [Captain Cook claimed Australia for Great Britain in 1770, but maybe it wasn’t considered a continent yet and Antarctica wasn’t even spotted by Westerners until 1820. Who knew?] The making of clocks in Scotland was recognized as a profession beginning in ~1640. By the end of the 18th c., Scottish clockmakers were turning out high quality clocks, but after 1850, their ability to compete declined as the practice of importing cheap movements/parts of movements and putting them together grew in popularity. This led to prejudice against tall case clocks for being old-fashioned, with the result that numbers of them were destroyed. What a tragedy! Fortunately this one survived.
If you’ve been wanting to combine a visit to the store with a trip to Great Country Farm, they open for the season today, with today and tomorrow the Egg Hunt and Marshmallow Harvest. If you’d rather bring a dog to the farm than a child, the Dog Days Bloom Festival on the 29th and 30th is for you! There will even be Doggie Olympics, so get your pup into training now.
Lynne & Bob McCann