Tompion number 181, a quarter repeating table clock c.1691, £130,000 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. 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 dealer Biggs of Maidenhead and in December 1973 it was advertised 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 was 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 in Amsterdam.
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 (it had been very skilfully removed at some point with relatively little visible evidence), the conclusion was reached it had been expertly erased 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 had a modest guide of £60,000-90,000 and sold at £130,000 (plus buyer’s premium).
