However, the star clock of his 387-lot clocks, watches and wristwatches offering on November 25 was an English George III gilt brass-mounted tortoiseshell musical chiming table clock, 16in (41cm) high, by the London maker Marwick Markham Perigal, c.1785 (shown right). It was one of seven clocks consigned by the late Amsterdam couple, Mr and Mrs Janssen, whose diverse and extensive collection of Italian, Dutch and French furniture, works of art and paintings, Oriental and European porcelain and jewellery, was dispersed last autumn through Sotheby’s various salerooms in New York, London, Paris as well as Amsterdam.
This lavish musical chiming clock, made for the Turkish market, was in good condition and had a perfect dial and enamelling. Its exquisite
manufacture and small size made it particularly sought after and four or five bidders contested it to €40,000 (£28,985), after which an American dealer outbid a collector paying €48,000 (£34,780) for ownership.
All bar one of the Janssen collection of clocks found buyers, with a notable €36,000 (£26,085) bid placed by a Dutch dealer for an English ebony-veneered brass-mounted repeating musical chiming bracket clock by Roger Dunstan, c.1740. Typical of Dunstan’s clocks, its finely executed spandrels were inset with painted personifications of the seasons and, like most English clocks made for the Dutch or overseas markets, it had a repeating half hourly rather than hourly striking movement.
Overall, the sale totalled €984,580 (£713,465) with a 69 per cent
take-up by lot.
Turkish table clock is toast of sale
Most Continental auctioneers combine clocks with their furniture sales, and Sotheby’s Amsterdam is alone in hosting the city’s only regular specialist clock and watch outing. These biannual specialist sales attract a mix of local and international dealers and in recent years Sotheby’s specialist Jos Meis has seen an increase in demand from US buyers for decorative French gilt mantel clocks and from Dutch collectors for the quality Dutch clocks in his sales.
