Clocks, Watches & Jewellery

This remarkable late 19th century English longcase clock offered for sale in Pennsylvania last month showed late Victorian design at its most confident.

The Louvre have secured the return of a French Crown Jewel after 121 years, through a private sale with Christie’s New York.

Police are looking for a thief resembling this man who stole a valuable clock from an antiques shop in Kent on Sunday March 9.

IT’S the sort of find that every dealer dreams of – a unique and valuable antique lying unrecognised and just waiting to be snapped up.

The significance of this unassuming oval cabochon emerald ring, is far greater than first appears.

The emergence of a significant new discovery is a guaranteed crowd-puller in any sector of the art and antiques market.

Among the highlights of Tennants’ Autumn Catalogue sale held in Leyburn on November 22-23 was this exceptional Victorian Egyptian revival table clock.

When first unveiled at the International Exhibition in London in 1862 (and subsequently shipped to Paris in 1867 and Vienna in 1873), the St James’s Clock, as it became known, was heralded as the second largest clock in the world after E.J. Dent’s Big Ben.

THIS George II walnut syphon tube wheel barometer by John Hallifax of Barnsley, c.1730, was one of the 209 lots from the Edwin Banfield collection offered by Dreweatt Neate of Donnington Priory on September 4. In a white glove sale all the lots found buyers.

A substantial reward is being offered for the return of a George III ormolu and white marble table clock by Matthew Boulton stolen from Knightsbridge dealership Hotspur on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 22.

The date of 1623 puts this timekeeper firmly in the first years of production of what has come to be known as the English lantern clock.

But supplies for repairs could still prove a problem

BELGIAN art dealer Maximin Berko is the driving force behind the Shanghai Fine Jewellery and Art Fair which will be launched at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre from October 13 to 21 this year.

A late 17th century English musical lantern clock with a musical movement closed the year in style at Moore Allen & Innocent of Norcote near Cirencester when it was bought by a private collector from the Midlands at £22,000 (plus 15 per cent buyer’s premium) on December 8.

Son of Sir James Thornhill, brother-in-law to William Hogarth and serjeant painter to the King, John Thornhill was also a founder member of the Whig Beefsteak Club.

The highlight of the two-day sale of clocks and watches conducted by Gardiner Houlgate of Corsham, near Bath on October 19-20 was this rare 17th century coach or clockwatch consigned by a Bristol family who had owned it for at least a century. Measuring 31/2in (9cm) across, it is shown here a little over life-size.

RECOMMENDED by Fiona Knapp, who has recently designed a range of jewellery for the Biba label, as one of the best places to buy gemstones in London, the quarterly Rock and Gem Show is held at Kempton Park Racecourse with the next scheduled for October 21 and 22.

BEAD-collecting tends to fall between jewellery and tribal art and is often overlooked as a collecting area in its own right.

THIEVES have raided a fair in Belgium and stolen antique jewellery from one of Europe's leading dealers in period jewellery.

The North American trade in antique barometers is under threat from mercury management legislation now operating in a dozen states.