What Price The End Of An Era ???

Sometimes the most unassuming run of the mill item can represent a shift in regional and national history and in that the run of the mill item becomes priceless and highly sort after .
Take for instance this onion top banjo barometer .

                                                 
Made from pine covered with a Mahogany veneer this 4 panel barometer is very much of a simple design it is the same height as a standard barometer the same width , the same depth and even when it was listed in the auctioneers booklet it was listed at a prices which would have been the same in any booklet through out the country so what made us pay 4 times the book price for this run of the mill piece ????

This little disk right at the bottom of the Barometer to us is priceless .
This is the only barometer we have seen in 50 years of trading that is attributed to the Owen family of Llanrwst it was said there was one signed by Watkin Owen which is possible as banjo barometers came into Britain with the migration of Italian Craftsmen around 1800 and seeing a business develop and look for other avenues to generate revenue buying in what would seem to be a specialist new on the seen item from said craftsmen and fixing your own name plate to it would give a local business the edge over there rivals our modern generation seem to think that we developed such things as branding and mass production where in reality they have been used effectively for hundreds of years by small business's .
This wonderful little barometer has now been fully restored by us and will stay here at Snowdonia Antiques in Llanrwst , it will be put on display so all passers by both local and from afar can share in its beauty and in the knowledge that even a small beautiful peaceful town such as Llanrwst and the Owen family " Clockmakers and forward thinking businessmen " played their part in the history of our great country , " Wales ".

Snowdoniaantiques.co.uk

Nothing can't be fixed .

Having seen so many Llanrwst clocks over the years from John Owen through Watkin Owen to William David and even Griffith Owen ( The last guy wasn't really part of the family he was just a great opportunist) we came to the conclusion that no clock was beyond repair .
Some people look at poor restoration with furrowed brows and lots of tutting we see it as part of the rich history that goes to make the piece an individual Take for instance .

Listed in the book as clock fig 55 : number 217 , C1805  this face is described as "Clumsily Restored " And to some it is but to us it shows the clock was well loved , you see the first thing that wears on a white dial face if its loved is the Name and Numerals these clocks where the center of any household and a prize possession and would have been cleaned and maintained regularly and with 200 years of cleaning I would expect nothing less than to see this extremely rare face needing some TLC  .

So along comes the owner or someone who isn't an artist and fairplay to them they try there very best with the materials at hand to keep this wonderful clocks identity .

There's no mention in the book of it being an Osbourne of Birmingham or Ann Osbourne taking over the business in the late 1770's after the death of her husband and making a success of it up until the early 1800's when her son came into the business or the fact that the 5th pillar had been removed from the works at one time . But even with all the work that needs doing there are some wonderful people who know how important it is for these pieces of our history to be preserved for the generations to come and trust us and our skilled craftsmen to put back these piece to the way they once where .

Hopefully if Mrs Osbourne where to see this now after we have restored it with care and such attention to detail she may be as pleased as we know the owners will be .

There are more restoration before and afters on our website .

snowdoniaantiques.co.uk