A quarter repeating table clock by Thomas Tompion, once numbered 181 for c.1691, estimate £60,000-£90,000 at Bonhams.
The textbook late 17th century clock by the ‘father of English clockmaking’ has been missing for more than 30 years after it was stolen from a home in Wiltshire.
Tompion's clocks are known for their ingenuity of design but another of his innovations was to introduce a numbering system for his clocks that is thought to be the first time a serial numbering system was applied to manufactured goods. He did this not for posterity but for accounting purposes. When it originally left the Tompion workshop in London c.1691, this clock with a quarter repeating eight-day movement was given the number 181.
In June 1957 it featured in an advertisement in Antiquarian Horology magazine, offered for sale by the well-respected antique dealers Biggs of Maidenhead and in December 1973 it was advertising in The Connoisseur magazine by the London clock specialist Ronald A Lee. However, exactly three centuries after the clock was made, it was stolen from a private house and (although advertised at the time in hope of its recovery) disappeared from the record.
Fast forward 31 years to the winter of 2022 when Bonhams were invited to assess the collection of the great Dutch connoisseur and collector, the late Cornelis Paulus van Pauwvliet. He had spent a lifetime collecting the finest European antiques from dealers all over Europe, all housed in his penthouse apartment a stone's throw from the Rijksmuseum.
The majority of the collection was sold in London in November 2023 but this lot was held back as it appeared to match the black and white photos and description of a clock on the database of the Art Loss Register. While it no longer carried the serial number 181, the conclusion was reached it had been expertly removed to disguise its recent history.
A 31-year-old mystery now solved and – with all parties keen to work together to find an equitable solution – an agreement was reached to offer the clock for sale on behalf of both the theft victims and the Paulus van Pauwvliet estate. It has a guide of £60,000-£90,000.
Among the other highlights of the sale is another English clock made to a design than was a radical departure when created in the 1780s. This ormolu, marble and porcelain mantel timepiece represented a collaboration between three key artisans of the Georgian era.
The Swiss émigré Justin Vulliamy (1712-97) introduced these clocks that combined biscuit figures from William Duesbury's Derby Porcelain Factory and modelling by the sculptor John Deare (1759-1798). The collaboration began around 1782 with this example dated 1786. It has an estimate of £15,000-£25,000.
English ormolu, marble and porcelain mantel timepiece by Benjamin Vulliamy, estimate £15,000-£25,000 at Bonhams.
