The Rolls record every member and every restored creature, permanently. The Unfinished Ledger records the lost — one hundred and eleven entries, each one a creature the world mislaid. A season is one entry being struck through: restored by name, by one apprentice, for good.
THE UNFINISHED LEDGER
The Whirlwright Guild, Wren Court. Begun 1751. A register of the creatures of the Menagerie known to be lost, entered by the number of the pattern.
Entries leave this register one way.
Maker: Jonas Wilmot, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1751, the same hand.
Motion: the leap — taken from a stand, cleared, and landed; the mainspring pays the whole cost at once.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1949: death duties; sold with the house. Traced to the saleroom and no further. It was the first made.
Maker: Elias Thorn, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1752, the same hand.
Motion: the song — a stopped pipe on paired bellows; it sang best after dark, which is to say when wound after dark.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1767: the west workshop fire. In for revoicing; it was to have gone home that week.
Margin (ink): The pipe was recovered. The pipe is not the creature. — E.T., 1767
Maker: Thomas Kell, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1752, the same hand.
Motion: the look-back — a check over the shoulder at the top of the stride; then on.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1923: the Ashworth sale. The catalogue offered it as 'a curiosity, going order doubtful'. Its going order was not doubtful.
Maker: Prudence Marsh, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1753, the same hand.
Motion: the vigil — the neck up, the wings half-lifted, and the hiss given to whatever comes.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1940: sent north out of the war's way. The crates were counted out at nine and counted in at eight.
Maker: Walter Pace, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1754, the same hand.
Motion: the bow — the sidle along the perch, then the head down and the tail up, the one paying for the other.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1916: the patron's heir fell in France; the house was shut and its contents went unlisted.
Maker: Abel Finch, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1754, the same hand.
Motion: the roll — the dive, the full turn, the surfacing right way up. The water was the patron's to imagine.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1952: the estate broken up; sold with the house.
Maker: Hannah Speed, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1755, the same hand.
Motion: the cocked tail; the song taken up by the whole body.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1924: sold, unrecognised, with the contents of a patron's house. Not traced.
Maker: Thomas Kell, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1756, the same hand.
Motion: the dig — forepaws alternating, the spoil thrown behind. It dug at nothing, thoroughly.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1958: the estate cleared. The auctioneer's ledger lists 'a mechanical animal, heavy'. Nothing further.
Maker: Hannah Speed, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1756, the same hand.
Motion: the call — a bellows cry that lifts and falls; Speed tuned it against the estuary at low water.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost: not recorded. The entry was made late; the loss was not.
Maker: Walter Pace, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1757, the same hand.
Motion: the ball — it curls shut against a touch and holds; each spine rides one hinge.
Fixed Half: intact.
REMARK: THE CURL HAS NOT BEEN BETTERED. THE WORKSHOP HAS TRIED TWICE.
Lost 1961: taken from an open house; missed on the Tuesday, not before.
Maker: Jonas Wilmot, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1758, the same hand.
Motion: the hover — wings and tail in constant work, the head held to a pin. The stillness is the work.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1944: the patron died in the spring; the autumn sale was brisk and badly catalogued.
Maker: Abel Finch, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1759, the same hand.
Motion: the lunge — out of the reeds, spent inside half a turn of the mainwheel, and back to stillness.
Fixed Half: partial — two leaves of the drive wanting.
Lost 1917: the house requisitioned; the contents removed to store and imperfectly recovered.
Maker: Prudence Marsh, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1760, the same hand.
Motion: the spread — the wings opened to dry and held so; a full minute of working stillness on one winding.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1923: the Ashworth sale. Bought, the Guild believes, for the case it stood in.
Maker: Thomas Kell, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1751, the founding pool. Made 1761, the same hand.
Motion: the far side — it climbs its post keeping the post between itself and the watcher. This was the commission.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1931: the collection sold piecemeal across three winters; the squirrel went in the second.
Maker: Elias Thorn, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1752, the founding pool. Made 1762, the same hand.
Motion: the double beat — four wings in two tempers, fore against hind.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1767: the west workshop fire, where it waited on its patron's gallery being painted.
Maker: Jonas Wilmot, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1752, the founding pool. Made 1763, the same hand.
Motion: the cast — the nose down, the ground quartered, the line found and followed.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1784: never collected. The commission was paid; the patron did not return; the store-book of the day records it 'put by, safe'. No later hand says where.
Maker: Abel Finch, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1752, the founding pool. Made 1765, the same hand.
Motion: the song — given from the perch, the head thrown back, the tail counterweighing each phrase.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1963: sold abroad with a dead man's library. The shipping list says 'birdcage, contents'.
Maker: Hannah Speed, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1752, the founding pool. Made 1766, the same hand.
Motion: the winter — it curls, slows by degrees, and stops well. Speed held that a good stop is also a motion.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1969: from a fading collection, quietly; the last letter of enquiry came back unopened. It was the last made by the First Bench.
Maker: Thomas Kell, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1753. Made 1753.
Motion: the song — a stack of four pipes, each phrase given twice over, as though checking it.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1783: burned, the drying loft. The pipes were of pear-wood.
Maker: Jonas Wilmot, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1753. Made 1754.
Motion: the pounce — the stillness, the high leap, and the drop nose-first.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1917: the estate passed twice in one year; the wildcat was not in either catalogue.
Maker: Elias Thorn, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1754. Made 1754.
Motion: the thump — the hind foot brought down twice; the warren told.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1923: sold, the Ashworth sale. Lot 40. Not traced.
Maker: Walter Pace, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1755. Made 1755.
Motion: the crow — the head thrown back, the whole frame rising on its spurs for the note.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1943: the house was given over to war use; the contents were moved twice and counted once.
Maker: Hannah Speed, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1756. Made 1756.
Motion: the bob — the curtsey on its stone, given as often as the river asks.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1931: sold with the contents of a patron's house. Not traced.
Maker: Abel Finch, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1757. Made 1757.
Motion: the strike — stillness kept the length of a slow count of sixty, then the lunge.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1789: burned, the temporary store.
Margin (ink): The store had been temporary since 1783. — R.P., 1790
Maker: Prudence Marsh, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1758. Made 1758.
Motion: the cast from the fist — one short flight out, the turn, and back to the glove.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1949: sold with the house.
Maker: Deborah Wray, Bench 1758. Registered 1758. Made 1759.
Motion: the shut — closed at a touch; opened when it chose.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1928: lent for exhibition and not returned. The correspondence is held.
Maker: Thomas Kell, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1759. Made 1759.
Motion: the walk — the rolling stride of a bird that owns the field.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1923: sold, the Ashworth sale. Lot 66. Not traced.
Maker: Jonas Wilmot, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1760. Made 1761.
Motion: the preen — the neck laid over the shoulder and drawn down the back, one feather to a turn.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1859: shipped with a patron's household for Calcutta; the ship was lost in the Bay of Biscay.
Maker: Hannah Speed, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1761. Made 1761.
Motion: the boom — a bellows note pitched so low the case is leaded to keep its feet.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1952: sold with the house.
REMARK: THE NOTE CARRIED A HALF-MILE IN STILL AIR. THE GUILD MEASURED.
Maker: Elias Thorn, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1762. Made 1762.
Fixed Half: partial — the drive pages wanting.
Lost 1940: the house was shut for the war; when it was opened, the shrew was not in it.
Maker: Abel Finch, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1763. Made 1763.
Motion: the drum — a roll struck faster than the eye, on its own post.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1958: sold with the house. Traced to a dealer, and no further.
Margin (ink): The crowds called it the Brass Drummer. The register calls it No. 31. — E.W.
Maker: Prudence Marsh, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1764. Made 1764.
Motion: the dance — the bow, the leap, the wing-spread, in the bird's own order.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1968: the collection thinned for years; the family could not name the year the crane went.
Margin (ink): Marsh work. The bow alone is thirty-one parts. — E.W.
Maker: Bartholomew Lane, Bench 1765. Registered 1765. Made 1765.
Motion: the point — the stop mid-stride, one forepaw raised, held for as long as the spring is asked to hold it.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1951: the house was broken up; the setter was listed in the sale as a door-stop. Traced to the sale and no further.
Maker: Thomas Kell, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1766. Made 1766.
Motion: the call — two notes, and the bird turning away before the second is done.
Fixed Half: not held — the book is missing with the creature.
Lost 1937: sold at auction, unattributed. Not traced.
Maker: Deborah Wray, Bench 1758. Registered 1767. Made 1767.
Motion: the descent — head-first down the trunk, checked at every span by a ratchet.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1960: sold with the house.
Maker: Nathan Frow, Bench 1768. Registered 1768. Made 1768.
Motion: the weave — the doubling run that never crosses its own line.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1971: taken from an open case between one week and the next. Not traced.
Maker: Hannah Speed, of the First Bench, Bench 1751. Registered 1769. Made 1769.
Motion: the climb — it winds itself up its own wire, singing as it goes.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1934: the family emigrated; the lark did not.
Maker: Edmund Crane, Bench 1762. Registered 1769. Made 1770.
Motion: the spring — sat, sprung, and sat again as though nothing had happened.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1966: seen at the valuation; not seen at the sale.
Maker: Susanna Kell, Bench 1770. Registered 1770. Made 1770.
Motion: the rise — up, the take, the turn of silver, and gone under.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1963: sold with the house.
Maker: Nathan Frow, Bench 1768. Registered 1771. Made 1771.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost: not recorded. The Ledger holds the fact and not the year.
Fixed Half: intact.
Living Half: not recorded.
Taken in for safekeeping. Crate marked WREN COURT — RETURN.
The crate did not return.
Maker: Bartholomew Lane, Bench 1765. Registered 1772. Made 1772.
Motion: the appraisal — the head aside, the eye given to anything bright, and the sidle towards it.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1915: the house was requisitioned; the jackdaw was not among what came back.
Maker: Edmund Crane, Bench 1762. Registered 1773. Made 1773.
Motion: the reach — a strike arc drawn longer than the bird's own.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1954: sold with the house.
REMARK: THE ARC EXCEEDS THE LIVING BIRD'S BY FOUR INCHES. THE MAKER WAS ASKED WHY. THE MAKER DECLINED.
Maker: Susanna Kell, Bench 1770. Registered 1774. Made 1774.
Motion: the day — it rises, dances the one afternoon a winding gives it, and settles. The maker allowed it no second wind.
Fixed Half: partial — two leaves missing.
Lost 1975: sold from one private collection into another; the second could not afterwards be found.
Maker: Deborah Wray, Bench 1758. Registered 1774. Made 1775.
Motion: the tumble — thrown over on the wing-arm and landing collected.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1944: the estate was sold in wartime, without a catalogue. Not traced.
Maker: Nathan Frow, Bench 1768. Registered 1775. Made 1775.
Motion: the trot — the diagonal pairs kept honest at every speed the spring allows.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1947: sold at the death-duty sale; traced through two sale-rooms, and no further.
Maker: Susanna Kell, Bench 1770. Registered 1776. Made 1776.
Motion: the song — bellows and pinned barrel; twenty-nine notes, then the listening.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1927: sold with the contents of the house; the sale catalogue gives 'a singing bird, wants winding'. Not traced.
Maker: Nathan Frow, Bench 1768. Registered 1777. Made 1778.
Motion: the point — all four feet planted, the whole machine gone still but for the tail.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1940: the house was requisitioned. It is not on the list of what came back.
Maker: Gideon Shaw, Bench 1778. Registered 1778. Made 1779.
Motion: the strike — the pause held above the water, and the feet thrown forward at the last.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1949: death duties; sold with the house. Not traced.
Maker: Deborah Wray, Bench 1758. Registered 1780. Made 1781.
Motion: the fan — the train raised, spread leaf by leaf, and lowered whole.
Fixed Half: partial — the train pages wanting.
Lost 1915: the house went into mourning, and then into other hands. Not traced.
Maker: Gideon Shaw, Bench 1778. Registered 1782. Made 1782.
Motion: the low quarter — flown a hand above the ground, side to side, missing nothing.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1951: sold with the house.
Maker: Susanna Kell, Bench 1770. Registered 1783. Made 1784.
Motion: the lesson — the tune given, then given back.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1958: death duties. The sale was held in the garden; the rain is noted in the sale-book; the buyer is not.
Maker: Bartholomew Lane, Bench 1765. Registered 1784. Made 1785.
Motion: the slide — down the bank; a hidden screw carries it up to go again.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1931: lent for exhibition. The exhibition closed; the seal did not come home.
Maker: Roland Pryce, Bench 1785. Registered 1785. Made 1786.
Motion: the chirp and the leap — file and comb for the one, a sprung linkage for the other; the maker admitted no cam.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1969: missing after an open day at the collection. Not recovered.
Maker: Agnes Nairn, Bench 1787. Registered 1787. Made 1788.
Motion: the draw — it pulls its water up on a little chain, drinks, and lets it down again.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1789: burned in the temporary store, awaiting collection.
REMARK: THE STORE WAS TEMPORARY.
Maker: Gideon Shaw, Bench 1778. Registered 1788. Made 1788.
Motion: the descent — pays out its own thread, checked, and climbs it back.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1954: sold privately, from a collection the Guild had thought settled. Believed held by the Vitrine Society.
Maker: Robert Kemp, Bench 1790. Registered 1790. Made 1791.
Motion: the ball — rolls shut at a touch, and opens in its own time.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1946: the house was broken up; the contents went eleven ways. The Guild traced ten.
Maker: Agnes Nairn, Bench 1787. Registered 1791. Made 1792.
Motion: the bound — both feet at once, the tail the third leg.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1923: the Ashworth sale. Sold to a buyer the sale-book records as 'gentleman, north'.
Maker: Roland Pryce, Bench 1785. Registered 1793. Made 1793.
Motion: the fold — the wings put away like a made bed; it hangs itself up to sleep.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1944: packed against the bombing and sent out of the city. The van is on record; the destination is not.
Maker: Robert Kemp, Bench 1790. Registered 1794. Made 1795.
Motion: the box — stands and spars.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1961: sold with the house. The buyer thought it a boxing toy; the Guild's letter went unanswered.
Maker: Charity Blundell, Bench 1796. Registered 1796. Made 1796.
Motion: the pace — ten strides, the turn, ten strides back.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1923: the Ashworth sale. Not traced.
REMARK: THE TOWN WANTED TIGERS THAT YEAR.
Maker: Agnes Nairn, Bench 1787. Registered 1798. Made 1799.
Motion: the reply — cocks its head, and answers, twice.
Fixed Half: not held — the book travelled with the creature, and shares its going.
Lost 1926: sold abroad. Not traced.
Maker: Titus Fenn, Bench 1800. Registered 1800. Made 1801.
Motion: the canter — three beats, and the moment all four feet are gathered.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1917: the house was given over as a hospital; the creature was moved for safekeeping. The record ends at 'moved'.
Maker: Charity Blundell, Bench 1796. Registered 1802. Made 1803.
Motion: the salute — kneels, raises the trunk, and stands; in that order or not at all.
Fixed Half: intact.
Maker: Roland Pryce, Bench 1785. Registered 1803. Made 1805.
Motion: the plod — one step per turn of the largest wheel in the Guild's history.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1942: given to the scrap drive by a patriotic heir. The Guild has views.
Margin (ink): Nine days to cut the wheel. — R.P., 1805
Maker: Titus Fenn, Bench 1800. Registered 1806. Made 1806.
Motion: the long step — a walk that pauses mid-stride.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1953: death duties; the house and its contents parted. Not traced.
Margin (ink): The pause is the step. — T.F., 1806
Maker: Aaron Garrick, Bench 1804. Registered 1807. Made 1808.
Motion: the theft — takes a coin, keeps it, and will not say where.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1906: stolen from a patron's exhibition case. The coin it kept went with it.
Maker: Lemuel Harding, Bench 1809. Registered 1809. Made 1810.
Motion: the call — three notes on the hour, asked or not.
Fixed Half: partial — two leaves missing.
Lost 1963: sold, catalogued among the clocks. Not traced.
Maker: Robert Kemp, Bench 1790. Registered 1811. Made 1811.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1966: unaccounted for at valuation.
Maker: Charity Blundell, Bench 1796. Registered 1812. Made 1813.
Motion: the sit — it wakes once an hour to consider the company, and is not moved by it.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1935: the house was shut up for the winter. The spring inventory is shorter than the autumn one.
Maker: Aaron Garrick, Bench 1804. Registered 1813. Made 1814.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1972: noted missing at probate.
Maker: Lemuel Harding, Bench 1809. Registered 1815. Made 1815.
Motion: the hang — held on the wind without a wingbeat, the head to one point in the air. The frame moves; the head does not.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1975: the collection outlived its collector by one sale. Not traced.
Maker: Titus Fenn, Bench 1800. Registered 1816. Made 1817.
Motion: the long song — one bellows phrase the length of a full wind.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1926: sold at auction with a music library, catalogued as a musical box. Not traced.
Maker: Joshua Orme, Bench 1815. Registered 1818. Made 1819.
Motion: the dig — it works beneath a cloth laid flat, and the cloth shows the seam.
Fixed Half: partial — two leaves missing.
Lost 1931: lent, and the lender died; the loan was never called back.
Maker: Titus Fenn, Bench 1800. Registered 1821. Made 1822.
Motion: the leap — thrown, falls back, thrown again, each attempt gaining.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1948: sold with the house.
Maker: Cornelius Dunmore, Bench 1822. Registered 1824. Made 1824.
Motion: the coil — gathered in on itself, and the strike out of the gather.
Fixed Half: partial — the strike train wanting.
Lost 1934: sold, unrecognised, at a farm sale. Not traced.
Maker: Cornelius Dunmore, Bench 1822. Registered 1826. Made 1827.
Motion: the taking-in — it leaves off walking, draws itself home, and waits.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1937: sold privately; the buyer's name not kept.
Maker: Joshua Orme, Bench 1815. Registered 1829. Made 1830.
Motion: the call — two bellows notes, and the head put out to own them.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1916: the house changed hands in wartime; the cuckoo is in no later inventory.
Maker: Walter Slee, Bench 1831. Registered 1831. Made 1831, his bench-piece.
Motion: the strike — still water, then the whole length at once.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1917: melted for its brass. The Guild was not consulted.
Maker: Titus Fenn, Bench 1800. Registered 1834. Made 1835.
Motion: the reveal — the wing-cases open on a hinge no one has bettered.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1941: the town house burned in the raids. The hinge went with it.
Margin (ink): Attempts to better the hinge are on record. Seven. — M.O., 1861
Maker: Gabriel Kell, Bench 1836. Registered 1836. Made 1837.
Motion: the strut — a magistrate's walk, wings folded at the back.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1928: the club it stood in closed; the contents went in an afternoon. Not traced.
Maker: Eliza Fenn, Bench 1839. Registered 1839. Made 1841.
Motion: the settling — roused, it turns twice, and folds back to sleep.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1940: packed away for the duration; not found at the unpacking.
Maker: Walter Slee, Bench 1831. Registered 1842. Made 1843.
Motion: the feint — the trailed wing, the limp, the sudden recovery.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1944: the house came back from requisition lighter than it went.
Maker: Martha Orme, Bench 1845. Registered 1845. Made 1846.
Motion: the crake — a comb-and-pawl rasp, two notes, all night.
Fixed Half: intact.
REMARK: A FULL WIND LASTS THE NIGHT. THE PATRON CONFIRMED THIS IN WRITING, TWICE.
Lost 1951: sold with the house.
Maker: Gabriel Kell, Bench 1836. Registered 1848. Made 1849.
Motion: the burst — up in a whirr from nothing, and down again ten yards on.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1954: sold with the house.
Maker: Martha Orme, Bench 1845. Registered 1850. Made 1851.
Motion: the plunge — a straight fall caught and wound back.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1962: sold at auction, the buyer through an agent. Believed held by the Vitrine Society.
Margin (ink): Held, the Society writes, in excellent stillness. The entry stands. — E.W.
Maker: Josephine Marsh, Bench 1852. Registered 1852. Made 1853.
Motion: the hover — four wings a quarter-beat out of step; the shimmer is arithmetic.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1923: the Ashworth sale, Lot 77. Not traced.
Maker: Titus Fenn, Bench 1800. Registered 1855. Made 1857; begun by his hand, finished by his daughter's.
Motion: the fan — the whole train raised on one worm and turned to the light.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1923: the Ashworth sale, the same day. Not traced.
Maker: Eliza Fenn, Bench 1839. Registered 1858. Made 1859.
Motion: the song — one phrase, seven notes, all summer; the last note withheld more often than given.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1958: the house broken up; the contents parcelled. Not traced.
Maker: Henry Quickfall, Bench 1861. Registered 1861. Made 1862.
Motion: the fiddle and the leap, in that order, always.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1969: taken from a locked case; the case undamaged.
Maker: Walter Slee, Bench 1831. Registered 1863. Made 1864.
Motion: the slide — it climbs its own bank to come down again.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1960: the river house sold; the otter listed, then withdrawn, then gone.
Maker: Josephine Marsh, Bench 1852. Registered 1866. Made 1867.
Motion: the boom — a bellows note felt in the case before it is heard.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1957: sold at auction. Believed held by the Vitrine Society.
Maker: Henry Quickfall, Bench 1861. Registered 1868. Made 1869.
Motion: the standing hover — the body works; the head does not move.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1971: the collection thinned yearly; that year, the kestrel.
Margin (ink): For the hover, see No. 11. — E.W.
Maker: Gabriel Kell, Bench 1836. Registered 1871. Made 1872.
Motion: the descent — head-first down the post, checked by ratchet.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1966: sold in error with a neighbouring lot. The error was established; the squirrel was not recovered.
Maker: Josephine Marsh, Bench 1852. Registered 1873. Made 1874.
Motion: the attendance — it works the ground behind the walker, the tail never still.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost: not recorded. The entry was made late; the loss was not.
Maker: Henry Quickfall, Bench 1861. Registered 1876. Made 1877.
Motion: the rolling gait — the weight thrown side to side; the ground taken regardless.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1963: sold under duty with the long-case clocks; the badger counted among them.
Maker: Martha Orme, Bench 1845. Registered 1879. Made 1879, the same hand.
Motion: the run — nineteen segments, poured rather than walked.
Fixed Half: not held — the book is missing with the creature.
Lost 1975: last seen at a valuation; the valuer's notes survive; the weasel does not.
Maker: Arthur Slee, Bench 1874. Registered 1880. Made 1880.
Motion: the check — the run broken by one look over the shoulder.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1923: the Ashworth sale, lot 61. Followed into the room; not out of it.
Maker: Constance Wray, Bench 1881. Registered 1881. Made 1882.
Motion: the phrase — fourteen notes from three bellows, sung entire or not at all.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1917: the estate sold in wartime; the catalogue does not mention it. The bellows are in the book; the phrase never was.
Maker: Arthur Slee, Bench 1874. Registered 1881. Made 1881.
Motion: the swim — one wave sent down the spine, and another after it.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1929: sold at the patron's death; traced to a dealer; no further.
Maker: Constance Wray, Bench 1881. Registered 1882. Made 1883.
Motion: the dance — the figure written in the air, and written again.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1944: the house was hit in the April raids. Nothing was recovered.
Maker: Arthur Slee, Bench 1874. Registered 1883. Made 1883.
Motion: the probe — the bill sent down full-length, and the listening after it.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1915: the house requisitioned; the inventory taken twice; the snipe on neither.
Maker: Constance Wray, Bench 1881. Registered 1884. Made 1884.
Motion: the climb — singing the whole way up a pillar the eye forgives.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1935: sold to meet the patron's debts; the buyer gave no name and was not pressed.
Margin (ink): For the first climb, see No. 37. — E.W.
Maker: Arthur Slee, Bench 1874. Registered 1886. Made 1886.
Motion: the ball — shut in one motion, nothing reconsidered.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1940: sent from the city for safekeeping. The safe house burned; the city house stands.
REMARK: THE PATTERN NUMBERS EVERY SPINE. THE WORKSHOP HAS COUNTED THEM TWICE, AND AGREES.
Maker: Constance Wray, Bench 1881. Registered 1887. Made 1888.
Motion: the sleep — breath, and the slow decision against waking.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1954: sold with the house. The catalogue offered it as 'a toy, sleeping'.
Maker: Percival Ash, Bench 1888. Registered 1888. Made 1889.
Motion: the quarter — a slow head-turn through a silent arc.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1959: the library sold entire against the duty; the owl went with the books.
Maker: Percival Ash, Bench 1888. Registered 1888. Made 1888.
Motion: the settle — wings closing by halves.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1948: sold privately. Believed held by the Vitrine Society.
Maker: Osbert Nairn, Bench 1893. Registered 1893. Made 1894.
Motion: the climb — a stalk that bends, and a climber that trusts it.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1962: the collection sold a case at a time. The mouse went early, and small lots travel far.
Maker: Florence Kell, Bench 1899. Registered 1899. Made 1899.
Motion: the tilt — the head aside; the question put.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1926: sold at the patron's death; the buyer unknown to the room.
Margin (ink): The hand is Kell's. The Bench has known the name one hundred and forty-eight years. — O.N., 1899
Maker: Osbert Nairn, Bench 1893. Registered 1904. Made 1905.
Motion: the surfacing — the ground lifts first, then the mole.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1970: missed at the collection's spring inventory. The case was locked. The case was empty.
Maker: Florence Kell, Bench 1899. Registered 1908. Made 1909.
Motion: the crossing — it never lands. It was built with no feet; the only one.
Fixed Half: intact.
Lost 1916: the house was shut by the war; no inventory of that year or any year names the swift. The pattern is the last the old Guild registered.
THE COUNT.
Entries registered: one hundred and eleven.
Entries standing: one hundred and eleven.
The register remains open.
Arrow keys turn the leaves.