Thursday, September 6, 2007

Watches, Clocks and Bells

I ripped a little blurb from the paper about an antique watch auction house that recently fired its founder. I did not throw it into the runcible bin, so of course I've lost it, but I've been thinking of wearing little working pieces of history on your wrist.

W's article on the revitalization of Dent & Co. mentions the Royal Observatory clock in Greenwich, chronometers once used by Darwin, the fluid compass, and their mid-C19 patent on the key-less watch as well as their new commission for St. Pancras station.

Both of these stories remind me of the Oranges and Lemons rhyme summarized beautifully in The Annotated Mother Goose by the Baring-Goulds. I like how the bells chant a relay about the markets - oranges and lemons, brickbats and tiles, two sticks and an apple. I need to start a file on this watches, clocks and bells business!

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