Historical information

This item is from a collection donated by descendants of John Francis Turner of Wodonga. Mr. Turner was born on 6 June 1885. He completed all of his schooling at Scotts Boarding School in Albury, New South Wales. On leaving school, he was employed at Dalgety’s, Albury as an auctioneer. In 1924 John was promoted to Manager of the Wodonga Branch of Dalgety’s.
On 15/03/1900 he married Beatrice Neal (born 7/12/1887 and died 7/2/1953) from Collingwood, Victoria. They had 4 daughters – Francis (Nancy), Heather, Jessie and Mary.
In 1920, the family moved From Albury to Wodonga, purchasing their family home “Locherbie” at 169 High Street, Wodonga. "Locherbie" still stands in Wodonga in 2022. The collection contains items used by the Turner family during their life in Wodonga.

The clock is representative of French mantel clocks in the late 19th and early 20th century. The key included may be a replacement key as these keys were commonly manufactured in England by "Popular Progress" whose trademark is on this key.

Significance

This item comes from a collection used by a prominent citizen of Wodonga. It is representative of a style of crystal ware items of the early 20th century.

Physical description

A French designed black and red marble or slate mantel clock. The clock face is white with black handles and Roman numerals. The number of minutes is also marked in 5 minute intervals in Arabic numerals around the outer edge of the dial. It is a wind up clock with 2 winding points. The key included is manufactured by English clock key manufacturer "Popular Progress". There is a line design etched into each of the 4 corners of the front section and the front of the base.

Inscriptions & markings

On Key " Made in England" and the letter P inside an outline Spade