Details

About the Large Pasty Thief Clock, 30cm

KayCee is the Cornish artist behind Gullz R Loud, with shops in St Ives and Penzance. The Pasty Thief gull is her signature character, turning up on everything from T-shirts to prints, and this large pasty thief clock puts him centre stage. Her designs start as original paintings, and the clock is designed in Cornwall.

Anyone who's eaten outside in St Ives will know the culprit. The town council says St Ives has over 240 nesting pairs of herring gulls, and that snatching food is their trickiest habit. Scientists from the University of Exeter, working in Falmouth and Penzance, found gulls go for food a person has just handled, and that staring back at them helps. The town council's advice is simple: don't feed the gulls.

The joke is on the pasty, not the bird. All gulls are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, and herring gulls are on the UK Red List of birds of conservation concern, as the RSPB notes. The pasty in its beak is properly crimped: since 2011, a Cornish pasty can only be made in Cornwall, and the Cornish Pasty Association says it must be D-shaped and crimped to one side.

It's an easy clock to read: full numbers from 1 to 12 set around the edge, black hour and minute hands and a slim red second hand. At 30cm across, it reads clearly from across a kitchen or hall. The maker says the mechanism is virtually silent, and it takes one AA battery, not included.

It's one of our favourite seagull gifts: a cheerful present for anyone who loves Cornwall, and a talking point in any kitchen. Our Large Puffin and Crab Clock is its partner by the same artist: the same size, in grey.