Forest Clock Backflow Incense Burner — 8 Inch Signpost Tree With Pocket Watch Clock

Quick Specs

• Type: Backflow incense cone burner with a clock dial
• Size: 8 inches
• Clock: Cream dial with Arabic numerals in a gold-tone pocket-watch case, marked Quartz
• Signposts: Wooden signs that appear to read This Way, That Way, Wrong Way, and The Other Way
• Cone spot: Yellow-rimmed cap of a purple toadstool
• Base: Round black base

A Twisting Tree With a Pocket-Watch Clock and Four Signposts

A tree trunk twists upward in ribbons of purple, blue, and magenta, and the clock is set right into it. The case is shaped like a pocket watch, gold-toned, with a ring at the top like a watch bow. The cream dial carries black Arabic numerals and a red second hand, with the word Quartz printed above the six. Wooden signposts jut from the trunk on both sides. On the left they appear to read This Way, That Way, and Wrong Way, and on the right, Wrong Way and The Other Way, with the last one partly hidden behind the toadstool. A black lantern with yellow panes hangs from a post at the upper left. At the foot of the tree grow green moss, a small magenta toadstool, and a playing card, and the roots spill across a round black base. At the lower right a purple toadstool with white spots and a yellow-rimmed cap carries a yellow cone, and that rim is the cone dish. Each element has its own color: the trunk in cool purples and blues, the signs in warm orange-brown wood, the lantern in yellow, and the moss in bright green, so the eye moves from the clock to the signs to the toadstool in turn.

The signposts call to mind a scene in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In Chapter VI, Alice asks the Cheshire Cat which way she ought to go from here. He answers, “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” Alice answers that she hardly minds where, and the Cat replies that any way will do, as long as she walks far enough. Then he waves a paw: in that direction lives a Hatter, and in that direction lives a March Hare, and she may visit either one. A sign that points This Way and another that points The Other Way give that conversation a face. The pocket watch brings in the book’s other time-keeper, the White Rabbit, who takes a watch out of his waistcoat-pocket in Chapter I, and the clock set into the trunk keeps its own hour among all those arrows. In the story the White Rabbit hurries because he is late, and a burner with both a clock and a crossroads invites a slow pace: sit, light a cone, and watch the smoke find its way down.

Practical Ritual Applications

Stand the burner on a bookshelf, a mantel, or a console table, in a room where the air stays still. The pocket-watch dial draws the eye, and the signposts invite a closer look at the carving. Set a backflow cone in the yellow-rimmed dish, and the smoke falls from the toadstool while you read, sketch, or plan the week. Backflow cones come in many scents, and my backflow cone collection has them. As a gift it suits readers of Lewis Carroll, collectors of storybook pieces, and anyone who likes a dark, twisting woodland on a shelf. Between cones the tree stays on display as a painted sculpture with a clock face and a lantern, and the purple toadstool dish at its foot keeps the cone within easy reach of the hand that lights it.

How to Burn a Backflow Cone in Your Forest Clock Burner

The Tarot Fellow Standard

I stock this burner for the way it fills a shelf with story. The trunk twists, the lantern hangs, the signs point every direction, and a clock sits in the middle of it all. Backflow smoke needs a cone and a still room, so the burner suits anyone trying backflow incense for the first time. Pair it with cones from my backflow collection, or browse my home decor collection for more painted sculptures to set beside it, since the purple trunk and the black base sit comfortably next to dark wood and candlelight.

Frequently Asked Questions