A clock is a time giving and a time consuming item. At least once a week, or even once a day, it is necessary to wind it up and, if you don’t keep pace with the clock, to readjust the time as well. In our busy world such regularity can be a chore. Little wonder then, particularly with modern technology at our fingertips, that clocks are less desirable than they once were.
However, clocks are still a thing of beauty and mechanical wonder, and a house without a clock ticking, or chiming, can feel soulless and cold. So, imagine if you could have the best of all worlds. The beauty of a clock, but without the winding hassle. At Golding Young’s late August sale in Grantham, three such clocks were offered for sale.
All being Vienna wall clocks and made in Austria at the end of the 19th century, two required winding just once a year, whilst the third required winding just four times a year. Each clock was distinctly different in appearance. The first annual wind clock, lot 2, was made by Johann Wörle in Vienna, an imposing clock in a typically heavy mahogany case, much in vogue at that time. The second clock, lot 4, was a little more rustic, but lighter in appearance, being of mahogany and ebonised wood, by Joh: Umenberger of St. Marienkirchen an de Polsenz, a tiny village near the city of Linz.
The annual wind clocks both attracted intense internet and telephone bidding, each selling for a hammer price of £1700. The quarter wind clock, lot 331, sadly, had no attributed maker’s name and was in a softwood case painted to simulate rosewood. Clearly very provincial in its appearance. However, it still attracted frantic bidding, and despite much lower expectation, sold for a most impressive hammer price of £1200. The likelihood, at these prices is that the clocks will end up as prized possessions of collectors, rather than as mere furnishing pieces. One thing is for sure though; the buyers will be having the time of their lives!
