We came across a fine old pillar and scroll mantle clock.  It was made in the manner of Eli Terry.  The face was painted with a most curious---perhaps disturbing---illustration.  An inscription read "And she would sit and weep, for Kate is craz'd."  This was a most unusual clock.  Something nagged about the illustration and inscription, so we did a little research.  
     We found the source of all this.  It was a poem by 18th century poet William Cowpers.  In context, the illustration fits.

William Cowper (1731-1800)

Crazy Kate
By William Cowpers 1731-1800

There often wanders one, whom better days
Saw better clad, in cloak of sattin trimm'd
With lace, and hat with splendid ribband bound.
A serving maid was she, and fell in love
With one who left her, went to sea and died.
Her fancy followed him through foaming waves
To distant shores, and she would sit and weep
At what a sailor suffers; fancy too
Delusive most where warmest wishes are,
Would oft anticipate his glad return,
And dream of transports she was not to know.
She heard the doleful tidings of his death,
And never smil'd again. And now she roams
The dreary waste; there spends the livelong day,
And there, unless when charity forbids,
The livelong night. A tatter'd apron hides,
Worn as a cloak, and hardly hides, a gown
More tatter'd still; and both but ill conceal
A bosom heaved with never-ceasing sighs.
She begs an idle pin of all she meets,
And hoards them in her sleeve; but needful food,
Though press'd with hunger oft, or comelier cloaths,
Though pinch'd with cold, asks never. � Kate is craz'd.

January 2004 auction
 

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