Powerhouse Gains Flinder's Clock

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday December 29, 1993

PETER FISH

Sydney's Powerhouse museum now has Matthew Flinders's long-case regulator clock as well as the marine chronometer that sailed with the explorer in 1801-3 when he proved conclusively that New Holland was an island, and gave it a name - Australia.

A regulator clock is a highly accurate device used to check the accuracy of other clocks.

The museum moved quickly to bid on the regulator clock, made by Thomas Earnshaw in 1790, when it came up for auction at Sotheby's in London on December 16. Estimated at Pound 20,000-Pound 30,000, the clock finally sold for Pound 24,000, which with the buyer's premium means the Powerhouse will pay$60,700. The chronometer used by Flinders on his Australian voyages, known as Earnshaw No 520, has been in the Powerhouse collection since 1937.

The Powerhouse's senior curator, Dr David Dolan, regards the regulator clock as one of its most important purchases. "This is the gear used when he proved Australia was an island," he says.

"The beauty of it is to have both the clock and the chronometer. For display and education purposes, the two are worth not just twice as much but 10 times as much as each alone."

It is hoped both clocks will be on display at the Powerhouse by Australia Day, January 26, and will later shift to the Sydney Observatory when its refurbishment is complete.

The observatory is a particularly appropriate venue because of the vital role it played in navigation in the early days by sending accurate time signals to shipping - hence its prominent location near the harbour.

It's an exaggeration to say Australia might not be on the map but for the arrival of accurate clocks. But chronometers played a significant role in the peregrinations of the early explorers, including James Cook and Flinders.

Offered at the same London auction was a chronometer by Earnshaw which won the Admiralty accuracy trials in 1791 and then accompanied Captain Bligh on his subsequent voyage to Tahiti and the West Indies. Apparently Bligh paid the not inconsiderable sum of 40 guineas for it. It was estimated at Pound 15,000-Pound 20,000 but failed to find a buyer at the sale.

AN EARLY POTBOILER

It's a theme Arthur Boyd could have tackled in his allegorical period - but someone painted it first. About 2,500 years ago, in fact. It's a spirited rendition of a bearded, naked hero battling a sea monster with the body of a fish and a jawful of jagged teeth, and the action all takes place around an ochre-coloured vase some 40cm high. This early potboiler is an extremely rare example of a Caeretan hydria with decoration attributed to the much admired"Eagle Painter", and dates from the late 6th century BC. It set a world record for an antiquity at Sotheby's London this month when it sold to an anonymous buyer for Pound 2.2 million ($4.8 million).

PIEBALD CAT STANDS OUT

Meanwhile a piebald ceramic cat of Chinese origin, lacking ears, has sold through Phillips, London, for the handsome price of Pound 7000 ($15,400). According to Britain's Antiques Trade Gazette the finely-moulded recumbent cat, 22cm long, once served as a doorstop in a New South Wales house before finding its way to an Australian art dealer and thence to the saleroom. The cat dates from around 1800.

RARE $200,000 CARPET

The British may sometimes see Australians as a nation of sybaritic suburbanites but it's surprising what treasures are unearthed on these shores. Take the rare 18th century Oushak (Turkish) carpet which sold for 209,000 deutschemarks (with tax, over $200,000) at Rippon Boswell's Wiesbaden sale in November. The price is a record for this type of rug, known to rug buffs as a double-niche Oushak. The vendor was an Australian collector.