The Puppet Show of Memory (1922)

The Puppet Show of Memory

Maurice Baring's memoir recalls family, education, travel, literature, and the social world around his early life. (Open Library)

Watches

Breguet pocket watch

Baring remembers that his father collected Breguet watches, then gave them away to people he thought would enjoy them. The recollection pairs his father's generosity with his taste for good art, furniture and performance. A later passage recalls Maurice receiving his father's own Demidoff Breguet after news of his success at Eton. The memoir therefore connects watch collecting to giving, including a particular family gift, rather than describing an impersonal investment collection. (Project Gutenberg source text)

Source text: "He used to collect Breguet watches; but he did not keep them; he gave them away to people who he thought would like one." (Project Gutenberg ebook 57158)