Rare Westacre Grandfather Clock & Pit-a-Pat Phone!

Both these rare items were sold within a few minutes of going up for sale on KT Miniatures website but I am not surprised as they simply do not come along very often. In the whole of my 17 years of trading, it is the first time I have ever handled these two pieces, which indicates quite how rare these are!

c1920s/30s Westacre Grandfather Clock

 

Westacre furniture was made between the two world wars in the  Norfolk village of Westacre, by Westacre Village Industry, an initiative spearheaded by Ysabel Birkbeck. Ysabel lived at Westacre High House, Castleacre in Kings Lynn.  Local people including children were involved in constructing many of the pieces. The delicate gold decoration found on many of the Westacre pieces,  was undertaken by Ysabel or Minnie Cross (the headmistress of the local school) and her sister and sometimes the vicar's wife!  The pieces were sold in the prestigious Morrell's Toy Shop in the infamous Burlington Arcade and would have been expensive.

 

You can see here that time is set at just a few minutes past six on a gold coloured clock face. The pieces of Westacre furniture would be made out of many readily available materials such as card, paper, string, wire, beads, paint etc.  This clock appears to have been constructed out of card.

As this was the first time I had actually handled one of these clocks, I was fascinated to see the method of creating a weight in the base in order to keep the clock standing upright...it appears to be a cluster of stones glued in the bottom....ingenious!!!

c1930s Pit-a-Pat Telephone

Pit-a-Pat furniture is highly sought after anyway...as the pieces are becoming increasingly more difficult to get hold of. However there are certain pieces of Pit-a-Pat dolls house items that are as rare as hen's teeth and simply do not come along very often. This phone is one of them.

It is made out of wood, with a paper dial and separate receiver, also made from wood. The receiver is attached to the main body by green thread. The phone is painted black with mottled gold.

Lovely item. 

Although these were sold immediately they went up for sale, I thought I would highlight these on here for you all to see.