June 30, 2003, 23:41
Lindell V. RiddleDirty Clock Fetches £900,000
This interesting story and picture were sent over from England by our own Ged Pitchford...A dirty old clock left in the corner of a country house library for decades became the most expensive timepiece ever sold in Europe when it recently fetched £901,600.00 at Sotheby's in London.
A Sotheby's representative carrying out a routine insurance valuation at the house in Germany thought the table clock looked interesting so he sent a photograph to the auction house.
When it arrived on the desk of Michael Turner, director of the clock department at Sotheby's in Olympia, west London, he could scarcely believe his eyes. He realized that the clock, overlaid in translucent red turtleshell and surmounted by an ormolu figure of Apollo, was a rare work by Thomas Tompion, England's greatest clockmaker. Until then only three such pieces were thought to have been made.
The aristocratic owners of the clock, which was made in London about 1705, had no idea of its rarity and value. It was covered in grime and had not worked for years.
As a result of the Southeby's Auction an English collector who specializes in Tompion clcoks paid a record price and the old country house will now have a new roof.
An Exceptionally rare clock built by Thomas Tompion set a record in England...
