Wright’s online exhibition of more than 30 timepieces was featured in Dealers’ Diary in No 2548 including one of the highlights, the earliest recorded numbered table clock by Daniel Quare (1648/49-1724).
A new client spotted it there, phoned the dealer and snapped it up. It was priced at £75,000.
The clock was a recent rediscovery from the continent. Numbered 27 for c.1706, it has both pendulum regulation and a pull quarter repeat. The backplate is elaborately engraved with scrolling foliage and a pair of flower cornucopias above a signature.
The clock is almost identical to one sold at Sotheby’s in 1968 for £4500, which was numbered 39.