TALK TIME: KEVIN CHELLAR, Horologist and proprietor of Timepiece Antique Clocks in Dublin
How did you develop an interest in horology, was it a family tradition?No, not at all. My dad was an electronics engineer who worked with computers. So while computers were cutting edge for everybody else, they were old hat to me. I'd lived with them all my life. My father wanted me to go to university and study engineering. But I'm afraid what he wanted was never what I wanted. Luckily, I stumbled upon a course at the Irish Swiss Institute of Horology.
And at what point did you decide to concentrate on antique timepieces?Around the time I graduated in 1981, plastic was starting to predominate in watch-making and I was becoming a little disenchanted with things. But people started arriving at my door with antique clocks, looking to get them repaired. Aunts, uncles, the parish priest – everyone. We don't have a history of clock-making in our family. But I had a quick look in the Golden Pages and there was only one other guy doing it in Ireland at the time. So I've been cracking away at it ever since.
Looking at the timepieces in your shop here, are these mostly things that people have sent in for repair? Or is this stuff for sale?Both. What you're seeing here is about 50 per cent repairs and 50 per cent work I'm doing for myself. But even those repairs would include things I'd sold or repaired 20 years ago. If you look after these pieces, they'll outlive you, they'll outlive your kids and they'll outlive their kids. That clock in the corner there was made in 1710. That's just 20 years after the Battle of the Boyne.
Is it true that at that time, this area of Dublin would have been a hive of clock-making?That's right. Between the end of the Jacobean Wars and the Act of Union, Dublin was the second city of the empire and very wealthy. Ireland had lots of émigrés – Huguenots and Dutch – and they brought with them a lot of continental technology. In this town, you have to understand, clocks were a little like computers. Even up to the turn of the 19th century, they were considered a form of black magic. Some of these clocks even had a little talisman, almost like a Sheela na Gig, above the face to ward off evil spirits.
It seems incredible that ideas so primitive could exist alongside technology so sophisticated. But, I suppose, you have creationist websites and an Iranian nuclear programme today.Well, the golden age of clock making lasted from about 1680 to 1750. Huge technological advances were made, but it was all very secretive. You couldn't just tell people what you were up to, and how you were doing it. The church was keeping a very close eye. It was Galileo, for example, who came up with the idea of the pendulum. But for the rest of the world it was still earth, wind and fire.
What's the antiques world like, is it all auctions and glamorous heiresses?To be honest, I do my best to steer away from auctions. I feel you need more time to look at something. I like to lie a clock down on its back, to get a feel of what's going on there and who did what to it before me.
What's the biggest killing you've ever made on an antique you've chanced upon?I did buy a clock in a major London house, a very old Irish grandfather clock. It wasn't in a clock sale, it was a decorative sale. It was listed incorrectly – my wife found it in a catalogue. So I flew over, went to the auction and sweated, sweated, sweated. It was the very final lot. I was frantically looking around the room for anyone I knew and eventually spotted a guy I know well. So I hid behind a pillar to avoid him. I eventually bought the clock for €12,000 and sold it for €80,000.
Wow. Now, I put a lot of time and money into renovating it. But something like that is the find of the century for me. Those are the ones that keep your heart fluttering, that allow you to put an extension on your house or take a nice holiday. But you can't make a living out of them. They come along too rarely.
Is there any contemporary technology that you think future generations will cherish the way you cherish these timepieces?To be honest, I don't think so. When I was a boy, my father brought me to see the accounting software at Gallagher's cigarette company and it was a massive roomful of computers. Nowadays, a netbook could probably do the same job. So no, I think it will all be forgotten in a hundred years.
Timepiece Antique Clocks, 58 Patrick Street, Dublin 8, 01-4540774, www.timepieceantiqueclocks.com
