Something About Saint Bernard Clocks

Wool of bat and tongue of dog.

One of the many items in Prospero’s house was a “brass St. Bernard with a clock in its side, and a red tongue that went in and out with the ticks as the tail wagged” (The Face in the Frost, 2). While this monstrosity sounds innocent enough, it also sounds garishly kitsch. And that’s the point.

During his days as a student at Notre Dame and later in Chicago, Bellairs collected kitsch. A 1960 letter explains the malady in his own terms:

"These friends share my addiction for antiques bordering on the disgusting, and have found a name for such trash: KITCH is the official title, invented by Gilbert Highet, and includes all the curious which affronts the sensibilities of sane people."

During the 1960s, friend and artist Marilyn Fitschen says Bellairs bought whatever kitschy items he could afford with friends chipping in the occasional gift. One item standing out all these years later for both Marilyn and fellow graduate student Robert Yaple was a clock on display in a window in Hyde Park. Bellairs wanted the clock but could not afford the tall, painted, High Victorian cast-iron figurine of Sairey Gamp holding a dog with a clock in its belly.

Was Prospero’s statue, as mentioned in The Face in the Frost (1969) therefore based on something Bellairs saw?

Mrs. Sarah (or Sairey) Gamp was the nurse featured in the Charles Dickens novel, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. I’ve looked high and low online for an image of this Gamp statue but I’ve never found anything. There are plenty of other Gamp collectibles – dolls and jugs, plates and mugs – but never a clock. This makes me think what Bellairs saw decades ago was a one-of-a-kind piece of art, currently hidden away in the attic of somebody’s great uncle.

Which probably is for the best.

But if you have a picture feel free to drop us a line.