Clocks

Private bidders were overtaken as dealers found warmth in the best traditional furniture and chattels offered at auction.

Over 20 years ago, leading art and antiques dealers in the picturesque Bavarian city of Bamberg came up with the idea of holding a coordinated summer sales exhibition.

Unmistakably the work of the Viennese avant-garde, this gem-set silver plated table clock sold for €205,000 (£186,000) at a recent sale held by the Rotterdam auctioneer Vendu Notarishuis.

For Paul Nunn, founder of antique clocks and barometers dealership Olde Time, the virtues of fairs and the internet have always been secondary to that of the physical shop.

A pocket watch worn by Lord Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar and probably given to him after his triumph at the Battle of the Nile is to be offered at auction next month.

As a showpiece for horology, the 'Masterpiece' fair lives up to its name. For all its welcome focus on the cool of 21st century collecting, at its core the 'Masterpiece' fair is a high-quality antiques show in the tradition of the Grosvenor House fair it replaced.

A forthcoming exhibition of two private collections spotlights both the genius of 17th century clockmaking and the remarkable objects the market has yielded across a generation.

Ken Hose, who has published three books on Australian clockmakers, has been fascinated by clocks and their mechanics since he was a teenager.

A late 17th century ebony veneered table clock with a pull quarter repeat took a mid-estimate £17,500 at Chiswick Auctions on June 6.

By 1677, the great English clockmaker Thomas Tompion (1639-1713) was subletting part of his famous London premises – The Dial and Three Crowns at Water Lane – to one Jasper Braem or Bream (fl.1677-96).

The emperor Qianlong collected Western clocks throughout his 60-year reign, building upon the interest of his grandfather Kangxi.

An eight-day longcase clock is a stand-out item of local interest at the upcoming Arley Hall Antiques and Fine Art Fair.

Celebrated in the thoroughly modern way with a Google Doodle on April 3 on what would have been his 325th birthday was John Harrison.

Made by William Selwood (1607-53), one of London’s finest clockmakers before the ‘Golden Age’, this 16½in (42cm) mid-17th century brass lantern clock topped Ewbank’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) spring sale in Send.

Holker Hall, the privately owned country house in Cumbria, hosts its first fair in nearly 25 years this month.

Specialists who relaunched North Yorkshire auction house generate old-school optimism.

A pendulum clock used in an early longitude trial will be offered for sale by Dreweatts next month.

Two of the first sales of 2018 suggest that toasts to the future can be drunk from half-full, rather than half-empty, Georgian rummers.

Good times ahead were predicted by Guy Schooling, chairman of Sworders (23% buyer’s premium), after the January 9 Homes & Interiors sale at Stansted Mountfitchet which was topped by a WAS Benson brass mantel clock.

This ‘Goliath’ carriage clock, below, was offered at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium) in Taunton.