Clocks

small-scale furniture for a special use

I love clocks - the “old-fashioned” kind. The ones without LEDs that actually make you deduce the time. Clocks can be beautiful and they also make good companions. With trusted regularity they will call to let you know they are there and working on your behalf. And like pets, they can be difficult until they finish training you and a cooperative existence is achieved. After that, you will never want to live without them.

Water clocks, incense clocks, sundials and variations on early European clock devices were the traditional means of keeping time in East Asia. Eventually, the Western, 12-hour clock face and associated mechanics became the standard there. Just as clocks from Germany, France, Great Britain and America all have their characteristic design elements, mechanisms and gongs, some aspects of early Japanese clocks make them distinct. However, clocks as furnishings were essentially imported and then copied in East Asia.

One can readily imagine variants of American shelf clocks or the early 20th century Craftsman style clocks that would be amenable to Asian inspired designs. Let me know if I can help you with your idea for a bespoke piece.