The collector: Michael van Kleeff, retired silversmith, furniture designer and lecturer, Eastbourne, East Sussex, UK.

The collection: Midcentury clocks.

The story behind the collection...

I collect midcentury domestic objects, more specifically plastic objects with some sort of design merit! In the early 1980s I started collecting transistor radios. It wasn't a conscious decision, it just happened when I saw a portable Roberts radio at a charity sale and though "that's nice" and bought it for £1.

It wasn't long before I had accumulatated 150 radios, mostly portable transistors but also some valve radios, hi-fi units and record players. One day I looked at them all (in my basement) and came to the conclusion that there was no method in my collecting - most of the radios were quite ugly so why did I have the ugly ones in my collection? I sold most, keeping just those I liked the look of.

Alongside the radios I found I had been collecting other things. It started with a butter dish - 50s style, plastic, no maker or designers name on it. I just liked it!

This was the beginning of a collection of domestic plastics that grew and grew. This time there were loose criteria - 'good design', 'bad design' and 'mad design or kitsch'. Oh, and inexpensive! So now my collection includes kitchen mixers and blenders, lamps and lamp shades, egg cups, clocks, calculators, Bandalasta, tooth brushes, electric razors, Swatch watches and twinphones, insulated jugs, Melaware and Gaydon/Melamex plates, bowls and cups. I have also collected a few drinking glassess and Pyrex/JAJ items.

Shown here are some of the clocks I've collected.

I have limited my collection to those with predominantly plastic cases or some use of plastics in their design. They are mostly British, Metamec and Smiths, two companies that dominated the British domestic clock market between 1945 and 1980 (though Smiths started manufacturing clocks in 1931), producing hundreds of styles and designs. Both companies produced some wonderful designs in the 50s and 60s, in my mind an age of innocence when colours and forms were employed unselfconsciously, creating a lasting style that is today looked upon with nostalgia! I don't think either company employed designers and that is probably why they did not produce any iconic designs, but these clocks evoke a period of optimism that is rarely found in design today.

There are several Smiths clocks from pre WWII which I collected as the designs are quite beautiful - Art Deco style in Bakelite and brass. There are a couple of wooden clocks in my collection too, because I liked them and couldn't resist buying them!

I am not an expert in clocks and their mechanisms. Some of these are mains powered, some battery operated and others have 'clockwork' mechanisms. Most work!

I never bought any of these items with the intention of selling them on and making a profit. It is only recently that I have realised some have a value. (I have sold some items to try to reduce the size of my collection!)

Unfortunately most of my collections are in boxes, stored in the attic! But once in a while I retrieve a box and photograph the contents and post it on Flickr.

Michael's collections on Flickr:

Clocks

Other collections

Images © Michael van Kleeff and used with his kind permission.