by Gale Beeby
Cuckoo clocks are not just for the chalet
Many years ago — too many to count — a friend gave my husband and I an authentic German-made cuckoo clock as a Christmas gift. It was large and loud and we didn’t quite know what to do with it, as our decor sensibility was more on the contemporary side.
In hindsight, I realize that clock was made with a great amount of skill by artisans plying their craft in the Black Forest region of Germany. I wish I still had it, although I think it is still dancing and cuckooing on the hour in the sports department of the Toronto Star, where I used to work.
So, as the world marches on to a different tune than that traditional German icon I so frivolously gave away, I have learned that cuckoo clocks are still made — traditional and modern — by a select number of Black Forest artists at Cuckoo Forest.
Perhaps it’s our need to remember the past, but apparently the old-fashioned timepieces are making a comeback and Cuckoo Forest makes them in many different styles, including carved, chalet, shield and modern clocks. Each one is a one-of-a-kind treasure.
I know I’m going to be saving my loonies so I can get a time-tested piece of history.