Clocks

As single disciplines go, English clocks are among the London summer fairs’ strongest suits.

While there were plenty of high-end clocks on offer in the London auction rooms and fairs over the summer season, Bonhams were the only house to offer dedicated clock sales.

The sale of Fine Clocks, Barometers and Scientific Instruments conducted by Dreweatts at Donnington Priory on September 4 will include this well-documented William and Mary brass lantern clock by Thomas Veale of Chew Magna.

This remarkable 1773 longcase clock by Hugh Lough of Penrith proved the top-selling lot at Mitchells of Cockermouth when it sold at £19,000.

Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis include this George III mahogany striking bracket clock by Robert Henderson, London in their sale on March 26.

It was not the oak case that made this George III eight-day longcase clock such an attractive lot at Batemans of Stamford – it was the movement and face which bore the magic name of Thomas Ogden of Halifax.

Hundreds of pieces of manufacturing equipment which have belonged to clockmakers Smith of Derby over the last 100 years are to be sold to make space at their site in Shropshire.

This Shibyama decorated ivory timepiece is a highlight of Derek Roberts Antiques’ and Patric Capon Fine Antique Clocks’ joint exhibition of carriage and other travelling clocks from October 29 to November 3 at 25 Shipbourne Road in Tonbridge, Kent.

The technological breakthrough of a clock which could keep accurate time to within one second every month was an unheard-of feat in 1727.

Suspended in a bubble of Baccarat crystal and powered only by temperature change, this Atmos 561 mechanical clock will become the first of its model to be offered at auction in the UK when it goes on sale at Fellows of Birmingham on September 3.

Among the clocks sold in London this summer, there were some of the glitziest and most expensive timekeepers to go under the hammer in recent times, many of them made for the Chinese market.

After 12 years of trading together, London clock dealers Nigel Raffety and Howard Walwyn of Raffety & Walwyn Ltd have announced that they will be going their separate ways this month.

Bids in the region of £1000-1500 are expected at Plymouth Auction Rooms on May 9 for this Eureka four-glass electric clock.

THIS large, 18in (45cm) high, London-made brass lantern clock, c.1660, proved the highlight of the recent single-owner estate sale conducted by Durrants of Beccles.

The latest sale at Duke’s of Dorchester included this 16in (41cm) wide French chinoiserie ormolu and lacquered bronze mantel clock c.1750.

In clock collecting, the gold standard of original condition can be a difficult one to meet. Clocks almost always needing repairs or replacement parts to keep functioning day in, day out for centuries.

THIS Holtzapffel & Deyerlein ornamental turning lathe made in London c.1827 came up for sale at Skinner in Marlborough, Massachusetts in a Science, Technology and Clocks sale.

THE discovery of a new clock by a Golden Age maker is bound to generate excitement in horological circles, but the £600,000 plus premium paid at Bonhams last week for the ebony table clock pictured here illustrates just how much the rarest and freshest examples can command.

THE highlight of the two-day sale conducted by Rosebery's of West Norwood, London on March 15-16 was this unsigned lantern clock, left, consigned 'in the rough' by a private vendor.

THIS brass inlaid mahogany bracket clock with a white enamel dial signed Drury, Cheshunt, was one of a number of antiques stolen during a break-in at Antiques at the Corn Exchange, Tunbridge Wells.