Its maker was William Bowyer of London, although when originally sold with an alarm train (now missing), his signature would have been obscured. Instead the dial carried the name of the retailer Samuel Linacre.
In George White's The English Lantern Clock, where the clock is extensively pictured, it is referred to as "a tour de force" and considered the best of the surviving clocks by Bowyer, one of the most prolific makers of the so-called First Period (1620-40) of English lantern clocks.
At 17in (43cm) high, it is unusually large, and much admired for its engraved decoration including a pair of side doors - the only pair known to have survived on a First Period clock - showing a momento mori scene of a skeleton with a Biblical reference and the walking figure of Chronos with his scythe and hourglass.
Offered for sale from a long-standing private collection with an estimate of £30,000-50,000 at Bonhams on June 19, it attracted three serious bidders before it sold at £120,000 (plus 20 per cent buyer's premium), a record for an English lantern clock, to Gloucestershire-based dealers Carter Wright.
