Relics from Austria

There are quite a few items that I have inherited, that came from Vienna, pre World War Two. Incredibly even though they were having to escape in a hurry from the Nazis my immediate family managed to get a shipping container out of Austria. Now my grandfather and father are no longer here I have inherited most of the surviving objects. None of them are worth very much, but it’s great they are still in existence.

This clock (pictured above) is, I think the oldest item that I possess from our Austrian past. It still works to a point in that if you wind it up, it still ticks. Eva (Schloss) owned it for a time as it came through Rudolf and Helene Markovits. It may even have belonged to one of their parents. It’s very middle European in character, with a lovely painting of a mountain scene. The inscription on the clock face reads Johann Koll in Raab – Raab being an Austrian town to the West of Vienna. I can’t find much about Johann Koll who was presumably a clockmaker in Raab, so more research is needed!

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By the way, in an envelope in my dad’s house marked ‘regarding the age of the clock’ (and there is only one clock!) I found these very fragile scraps of paper which I’m afraid I can’t read. I think it may indicate the clock was made in 1829. If you can make any of it out you are smarter than me!

I have also inherited a couple of old pocket watches that belonged to my great grandfathers.

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I also inherited a brown photo album with lots of great family pictures, that was given to Helene for her 80s birthday. The album concludes with some cuttings about Helene’s death, and this lock of her hair.

There’s also this silver cup. It has two dates – 1842 and 1882 although I’ve no idea where it came from, who it belonged to, or what the dates and initials stand for. M for Markovits? I do know it came from Austria as my dad had it in his flat when he died.

There’s also the alphabet tapestry (are they called primers?) made by my great grandmother Helene, as mentioned by Dad in his memoirs. It’s dated 1890 so made when she was about 11 years old.

And there’s a rather stern looking portrait of Rudolph in middle age, which Eva had framed, and then subsequently gave to me.

Well that’s about it – there are also some big German books in hard cover down in the cellar which I’ll dig out, plus there was some china with German writing on (I think Caroline Greenwood has this set) and silver tea pots and cutlery all of which had seen better days. Next time I go in the cellar I’ll dig them out and update this blog.