This Tompion table clock made c.1698 for William III was sold by dealer Anthony Woodburn to a new English private client at this year’s Grosvenor House fair.
Certainly much of it was in demand and good business was enjoyed by most of the 90 exhibitors, with nothing selling better than period English furniture and clocks, two of the fair's traditional strengths.
There were at least three Tompions at the fair, and this one, pictured here, was the highlight on the stand of noted Kent specialist Anthony Woodburn.
It is the celebrated Medici Tompion, a grande sonnerie table clock made c.1698 for William III of England and Holland and presented to Cosimo III de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
The Tompion went to a new English private client and throughout the fair exhibitors reported a resurgence of serious English private buying.
