The Silver Tompion, c.1677, table clock sold by Carter Marsh at The Treasure House Fair.
The Winchester dealership sold a number of English Golden Age clocks including the celebrated Silver Tompion. Offered on behalf of a collector from the Channel Islands, it went to a European collector on the morning of June 22 for a seven-figure sum.
As reported in ATG No 2595, the clock is both historically and horologically important.
Apparently commissioned for Charles II himself, it is the first clock by Tompion to employ his famous twotrain grande sonnerie strike system, the first he mounted in silver and the first to employ a rack rather than a counterwheel for governing the strike.
The ingenious close-fitting ‘lift-off’ case is attributed to Jasper Braem, the Anglo-Dutch cabinetmaker who was a co-tenant with Tompion at the corner house at the top of Water Lane on Fleet Street.
A full report from the fair, which replaced the defunct Masterpiece show in the London summer calendar, will appear in a future issue.
