Those little things… Small details that are capable of brightening my day and topping up my excitement.
Stories that coincidentally reach my hands. Stories unknown and unrevealed until this moment that make me think, remember certain moments and fill me with tenderness. Stories that I will never forget.
I bought this wedding dress in an auction in England. I had spent years looking for a 20’s wedding dress and I was fascinated by this one as soon as I saw it hanging. I bidded for it immediately and managed to buy it. The wait for it to arrive in my arms seemed eternal… It was delivered to me in Madrid in a simple old cardboard box. However my greatest surprise was when I opened the box to find a photograph of a bride and groom from the 20’s. I don’t have the slightest doubt that it is the bride showing off the dress that I had just received. A studio photograph made soon after the wedding, as was traditional in this period.
Why would anyone rid themselves of such a jewel of a dress? Why send the wedding photograph to the dress’ buyer?
I look at the faces in the photo and imagine the illusion in their smiles that they had both felt at that moment. An illusion that I share today, having the dress in my possession so many years later, and the ability to know who it was that got to enjoy it before I did.
One thing clear to me is that I will never get rid of either of these trophies.
Right now the dress is being displayed in my shop window whilst I show its veil, photograph and old box (why not?) to anyone interested in it.
Would you also like to enjoy this historical legacy?
If there is one film that continues to excite me and that I always look forward to seeing over Christmas (as I think they repeat it every year) it is “ChittyChittyBangBang”. It brings back an infinite number of childhood memories to me and I feel it’s one of those films that marks a before and after, not only in great musical and cinema history but also in the life of a young girl barely 7 years old.
Curiously when I told Angel that I wanted to write about this film and the car that starred in it, I was surprised by the fact that my nephew Angelito, roughly the same age as I was in this moment of fascination, was in love with not only the song and the film but also knew that the car was to be auctioned. Knowing this, he had begun to insert all his coins into his piggy bank in order to save and bid for the car in the auction.
It is estimated to reach about 2 million dollars in the auction.
You will have to save a lot Angelito! It’s a lot of money. However, what would be easier is a trip to the USA to see the car with the money you’ve saved up, given that is the place where it is to be found.
Various ChittyChittyBangBang cars were produced for the film, however only one managed to really work. This very car is the one that had remained in the hands of its only owner: Pierre Picton in Stratford-upon-Avon, until only a few months ago when he decided to put it up for auction. The vehicle was boarded in England and taken to California in May 2011, although I haven’t yet managed to find out the exact date that the auction is to be celebrated on. I am going to continue investigating because I would love to follow it live.
The star of the film, which was released 44 years ago today in 1968, is a vehicle designed by Ken Adam and built entirely by hand in the Ford racing department. It has a polished aluminium bonnet, a cedar wood interior, brass ornaments and its dashboard: the remains of a British First World War fighter plane, all this makes a most original and charming car. Chitty was finished in 1967 and was registered as “GEN 11”. This was meant as “genii” (genie), thus giving the car a magic and slightly human personality.
I don’t think that any of us who saw the film during those years would forget the main character, Dick Van Dyke, who gave life to an eccentric inventor that takes his sons on the biggest adventure of their lives.
The film, based on the novel by Ian Flemming that he had dedicated to his son, was filmed in England, France and Germany during 1967 and 1968, and was released on 16th December 1968. It was one of the most difficult and expensive films made of its period.
“ChittyChittyBangBang” was a huge success, and although its profits didn’t turn it into a box office hit (due to its extortionate cost more that a lack of spectators), for me it will always remain in my memory as one of the most charming films ever; one of those movies that I would love to continue enjoying with my grandchildren.
Since Angel has been involved with the blog’s more technical articles, I have discovered a significant amount of extremely curious things that I never would have imagined.
I think all of you know what a Grandfather clock is; the typical clock that we used to see in doctors, notaries or lawyers practises and that struck with a resounding “gong” at each hour. Well these gems that Angel is devoted to restoring were born in the Seventeenth Century, thanks to Galileo Galilei’s investigations and the development of the Pendulum Law.
Galileo worked on the Law but wasn’t able to develop a system that would be able to make a pendulum work constantly. Fourteen years passed until, thanks to this discovery, Ahasuerus Fromanteel managed to succeed in creating the first Grandfather clock in history; hence becoming a character that would fill many pages in clockwork and old machinery books.
Fromanteel was born in Flanders on the 25th February 1607. He was the first of a cabinetmaker’s five sons. He arrived in England with his family to escape the Spanish Conquest, establishing himself in Colchester, Norwich, and then later on in London.
Ahasuerus Fromanteel learnt the masters of ironwork during a period of seven years; however he immediately developed a skill for tower-clocks with a wheel escapement and table clocks wound up by a mainspring (one day we will talk about these!). He joined the guild of watchmakers in 1632 and became a member of the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths in 1631. Later on he devoted himself to constructing microscopes and lenses.
Before the invention of the pendulum clocks, clocks had a daily lack of precision of between ten and fifteen minutes. The use of the pendulum assured an accurate time telling, with an inaccuracy of only a few seconds per day; this factor, whilst sailing for example, is extremely important. With this simple improvement the precision of the movement and progress multiplied by sixty.
In general, pendulum clocks had clockwork that lasted for eight days, which meant that it had to be changed a lot less frequently. In order for this to function, the weight of the clocks ought to be greater (around 12 kilos), and this also means that the construction of the clock’s body should be more robust in order to support the clock’s extra weight, in addition to protecting the mechanism and dial of inexpert hands.
This was the way in which Grandfather clocks were born. This style stayed around for more than two hundred years. It was called the “Clockwork Revolution”.
Fromanteel was the first pendulum clock manufacturer in England, later using the design to make tower clocks, scale and table clocks, as well as pocket watches with a one year clockwork life and a great variety of domestic and industrial motors.
He also made and sold pumps for the fire fighting trucks of Norwich city.
As Mark Denny states in his book “Five Machines that changed the world”, Fromanteel’s patent “ushered in the age of English longcase clocks, which dominated horology for a century“.
Have you ever seen how a pendulum clock works?
You are invited to pass by the shop so that Angel can show you a few of the ones we have in motion from more than 30 years ago and that belong to his private collection.
