Baldwin Blinker

Maple and walnut wood, brass, 2 Seiko quartz clocks. 

12"tall x 18"wide x 4" deep

1/1/2009

$1,000 + Shipping/Handling (in the continental US)

I discovered an old Baldwin piano that had literally been tossed to the curb and was broken beyond repair. Rummaging through the wreckage I was amazed at the quality of the construction.

Even the reinforcing wood on the back of the piano was meticulously veneered with 1/4” thick birdseye maple! I cringed at the thought of that going to a landfill so I went home to retrieve my “Honda Truckster” and some tools and with a little effort I salvaged all of the wood and some of the more interesting  components. (The “harp” hung on my wall for a few years as “found art” until I gave it to a friend.)

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures at the time, but I did use one of those veneered reinforcements to make the top of this clock. The birdseye maple inspired me to cut little bird-head profiles into a whimsical Ionic crown. The middle part is a block of walnut housing two quartz clock mechanisms that power what represents two blinking eyes.  Thin walnut disks (eyes) rotate with the time—the left is a minute hand and the right is an hour hand— second hands are the blinkers.

Anchoring the clock is a ziggurat-stepped base cut from a block of maple.  The very curly maple center-piece was intended to represent a bird’s beak, but now when I look at it  I see it more as an elephant’s trunk.  Perhaps unconsciously I was channeling my fondness for “Babar the Elephant.”