" The Global Welshman . "

It's not that often we get a surprise but today was an exceptional day ,

It all started this morning with a random email out of the blue from a gentleman which began  .

" Dear Sir..I thought you might like to see this John Owen 13 inch dial I found at an antique show in Wethersfield, Connecticut last Saturday. "

Like music to our ears the thought that this wonderful piece of Welsh history which represents all that is great about Welsh craftsmanship has traveled the seas to find its resting place with our brothers in the new world was a wonderful thing to hear . However ......the next line crushed us to start with  ..... :(

" The hands are plastic and are attached to a battery quartz works "

The purest among us might think that this is sacrilege the destruction of such a priceless item , a piece of Welsh beauty which would have dated back to at least 1773 ( some 16 years before George Washington became president ) with its 5 pillar movement , inter-locking lifting mechanism beautiful rich deep Oak Case made of the finest timber from up on the hill overlooking the town of its creation " Llanrwst " with a starting price of £5,000 . Gone for ever !!!!!

In a way that's so true but we can't change the past this wonderfully engraved dial with its original minute finger has been saved and if it means having a battery to drive it then so be it , we don't know what happened to the case and works they could have been destroyed and the face might be the only thing left , the positive side is it still does exactly what it was designed to do the dial tells the time  .

Its beautiful  centre is still as true as the day is long with scalloped seconds disk aperture housing a wonderfully engraved seconds disk .

Although not worth a fraction of the thousands it would have been if it was still together with its works and case and probably worth more being melted down for scrap this wonderful little dial is priceless for without it a young man who ( probably before last Saturday might never have heard of Wales let alone Llanrwst ) visited an Antiques show halfway around the world and came away with a piece of Welsh history which has lasted 240 years . 

Mysteries of of time .

This is the centre Panel to the top canopy of a mid 18 Century Welsh three tier court cupboard or in Welsh a "Tridarn " .
Considered to be the only truly Welsh piece of furniture these pieces where the for-runners to the Welsh Dressers .
It is said a Tridarn was given in sections from Parents to Daughter over her years firstly they would give the base to hold the daughters belongings when she was young then the centre section when she reached adulthood and finally the canopy when she married Sometimes the couple would have been carved into the top section .
 I have no Idea who "  M & O " were , where they were from , or even what they did but I do know that in 1754 .

The Second Jacobite Rebellion began , it was 2 years before the birth Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , it was also 6 years before George III became King 15 years before Napoleon Bonaparte was born ,16 years before Captain Cook charted the eastern coast of Australia , 22 years before the US Declaration of independence . 35 years before George Washington became President and 35 years before the French Revolution .

What ever the truth of why these where given we'll never know but it is a lovely tradition if its true and one that once again is lost to the winds of time .