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 .
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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 .
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