Wall clock, painted acrylic with metal dial, designed by Christopher Nicholson, manufactured by Ferranti Ltd, 1946

V&A — Summary

This clock was designed by Nicholson for a stand representing a television research engineer’s office shown at the 1946 V&A exhibition ‘Britain Can Make It’. This exhibition was arranged by the newly formed government-funded Council of Industrial Design, and it aimed to boost domestic morale and encourage export trade. The entire glass supply of London was supposedly diverted for two months to fix the Museum's broken windows in preparation for the exhibition, taking up the ground floor. Attended by nearly one and a half million visitors, 'Britain Can Make It' was dubbed 'Britain Can't Have It' by the press because a large number of exhibits were at the prototype stage and unavailable to the buying public. This clock was made by Ferranti, for whom Nicholson designed radios (see W.3-1998), but was never put into production. The wall clock remained in Nicholson’s office after the exhibition until his death in 1948.

V&A — Physical description

The clock is round with an outer ring of acrylic (perspex). Three dimensional acrylic numbers have been adhered to the ring and are edged in red, painted by hand. The outer rim is considerably worn but significant amounts of red paint survive there too. The inner dial is metal (possibly aluminium) onto which the minute and hour markers appear to have been hand-stamped. The Ferranti logo is at the bottom of the face, but is upside down as the face has been rotated 180 degrees. The reason for the rotation of the inner face is because the acrylic ring is broken below the number 12 at the top. Four holes pierce the acylic to allow for the fixing of the metal face; the top one has suffered damage and this is probably when the inner face was rotated. The acrylic is 2-3 mm thick and the damage is not visible from the front. The clock is fitted with a standard electric clock, labelled Ferranti, which originally had mains wiring. Although the aesthetic is machine made, the elements and construction of the wall clock show a considerable degree of handwork as though the object were a prototype.

V&A — Object history

The wall clock, although apparently a prototype suited to production and made by Ferranti Ltd, did not go into production. It was designed by Nicholson for a stand representing a television research engineer's office, for the seminal 1946 V&A exhibition 'Britain Can Make It' (the design for this stand is in the RIBA Drawings Collection). Stylistically the clock looks back to the 1930s machine aesthetic and forwards to the plastic products of the 1950s. The clock remained in Nicholson's office, 110 Old Brompton Road, until his death in 1948 and was then owned by his family. The V&A acquired the clock in 1998 from Tim Nicholson, the designer's son, together with a radiogram, W.3-1998.

V&A — Production note

Reason For Production: Exhibition

V&A gallery label

Twentieth Century Study Gallery label text: Nicholson designed this clock for a stand representing a television research engineer's office shown at the 1946 V&A exhibition 'Britain Can Make It'. His drawing of the stand is in the RIBA Drawings Collection. It was made by Ferranti, for whom Nicholson designed radios, but was never put into production. The wall clock remained in Nicholson's office after the exhibition until his death in 1948.