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THE COLOURFUL DOUGLAS LAPRAIK (1818-1869)
PETER HANSELL
A year or more ago I purchased what appeared to be an interesting clock at an auction of the residue of the estate of an elderly spinster lady domiciled in the UK, but without any surviving relatives.
My instant reaction to the likely function of this clock was that it had been used or owned by a merchant traveller or campaigner and so it turned out to be. Similar in substantive construction to a ship's chronometer, but with a lever escapement, it had been lovingly embellished with a gilt oriental bow and strut at some later date and was contained in a mahogany travelling case, which could be laid flat, carried by a flush brass handle, or hung from a concealed bracket. The silvered dial is cursively engraved Douglas Lapraik, Hong Kong.
Having no provenance from the previous owner, my researches had to begin. Many residents of Hong Kong will know the legend of Douglas Lapraik, but it is worth paraphrasing here. He left Scotland as 'a young businessman' in 1839 at the age of 21 in order to seek further fortunes in the Far East. He spent some time in Macao before moving to Hong Kong, which had recently become a British Dependency. Before arrival there in 1842 in somewhat straitened circumstances he had become acquainted with a fellow ex-patriot and clockmaker, Leonard Just, to whom he became apprenticed. There were several Justs who were devoted to the clock making industry, but Leonard had been supplying clocks and watches to the Chinese market before he emigrated from Scotland a little earlier. His son Leonard Just Junior was listed as an apprentice along with Lapraik. During this time, Douglas Lapraik must have become acquainted with numerous mariners, their ships and their clocks, which he undoubtedly repaired. After a few years he is recorded as setting up his own clock making business, which, after his final departure from Hong Kong, became "Falconer Jewellers', a trading name that survives to this day.
Perhaps a more important development was that pari passu with this horological activity he became commercially interested in ships and shipping, the building of docks and warehouses and the establishment of a very successful shipping line chiefly concerned with