Historic clock to go under hammer

ELABORATELY CARVED ITEM AT AUCTION

CRAFTSMAN Gerrard Robinson’s masterpieces have stood the test of time.

His celebrated sideboards were topdrawer, must-have furniture showpieces for wealthy Victorians, including an elaborate piece depicting the ballad of Chevy Chase in which Harry Hotspur fought the Scots, which took six years to carve.

Now a long-case clock carved by Robinson with Newcastle landmarks is to be auctioned in the city today.

The top of the clock case is carved with the image of the Tyne God, which also dominates the exterior of the Newcastle Civic Centre, and which is flanked by carvings of a cockerel and an owl.

The case is decorated with carvings of St Nicholas Cathedral, the Castle Keep and symbols from the city’s crest.

The clock was previously in the ownership of George Bennett (1837-1923) of whom the vendor is a descendant.

It is valued at £5,000-£7,000 by auctioneers Anderson and Garland. “Gerrard Robinson was one of the most famous carvers in the country and he was especially known for his monumental sideboards,” said Julian Thomson, Anderson and Garland managing director. “The clock is a one-off, magnificent historical piece with carved Newcastle landmarks and symbols.” Robinson’s massive, elaborately-carved sideboards also depicted scenes from Shakespeare, the Robinson Crusoe story, and Epsom Derby Day. The Shakespeare sideboard is in the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead, after being bought from Chipchase Castle in Northumberland, while the Victoria and Albert Museum has a Robinson Crusoe version.

The Shakespeare sideboard was exhibited at the International Exhibition of 1862 and the Newcastle clock at the city’s 1887 Jubilee exhibition. Robinson died in Newcastle in 1891. The 19th-century carving encloses a clock movement and dial by Northumberland clock-maker Deodatus Threkeld, who was active in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The home Robinson built in Tritlington still stands and one of his clocks is held by the British Museum in London.

He grew up in Brancepeth in County Durham, where his father was a clergyman, and began his own clock-making business in Newcastle in 1680. The Gerrard Robinson clock and Tyne God detail