HOUSE OF CLOCKS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue 86, 13 April 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOUSE OF CLOCKS.

COLLECTOR’S HOBBY Somewhere in the extreme south-east of London lives Mr D. A. F. Wetherfield, the owner of the most wonderful collection of clocks in the world. Tn his house there aTe 220 of them, each ain exquisite w r ork into which a master of bygone centuries had put the whole of his artistic being and the perfection of his craft.

Before callers leave the house of clocks they have to promise Mr Wetherfield, who is 82, that they will not disclose his address, because he has a- horror of opportunist dealers, plaguing fakers, and persistent American millionaires. Some of the wealthiest men in the world have sought to raid his collection, but none has yet succeeded. Twenty-eight years ago Mr Wetherfield wanted to own a grandfather clock, so he employed an expert to obtain a high class specimen. He was deceived into buying a worthless imita tion, and when he realised the fact he decided for moral solace to acquire a collection of timepieces which would be unexcelled elsewhere.

A person who visits his house for the first time is entranced at the threshold by a chorus of ticking. Now and then from some obscure corner, comes a whirring prelude to the tinkle of bells, amd when the quarter hour, the half hour and the hours arc reached the house is filled with waves of harmony.

Clocks are everywhere—‘except in Mr Wctherfield’s bedroom, where he will not tolerate even ono # In the hall they stand all round so closely shoulder to shoulder that an inch of wall space cannot be seen. Thirteen clocks dominate the diningroom, one of them, perhaps the most coveted thing of its kind in the world. It is a slim, graceful masterpiece of burr walnut, by Thomas Tompin, who made it for William 111., from whose possession it passed to the Cambridge ducal family. Specially distinctive is its elaborate dome' surmounted by a statuette of Minerva.

There are 25 clocks in the drawing room and as many in every other apartment. The kitchen alone has a stock which would fill an antiquary’s shop. 35 are in the housekeeper’s room, and even the bathroom has six or seven. Forty-five bracket clocks furnish a box room.