Saturday, December 19, 2009

Guest house grandfather clock sells for £400,000

A grandfather clock that was a conversation piece in Lake District guest house turned-out to be a rare example that has sold for more than £400,000.

The ebony veneer "long clock" was made in London around 1670 by Dutch-born Ahasuerus Fromanteel, who built the first-ever precise pendulum clocks in England.

It went into a sale at Bonhams auction rooms in London with an estimate of up to £150,000 but went under the hammer for £400,800, to an un-named collector.

Bonhams sold the timepiece on behalf of the owners of a Lakeland guest house where it arrived after spending 100 years measuring time at a house in rural France.

Despite its travels the 5ft 9inch tall clock is in fine, original condition with the ebony veneered case intact along and with exquisite mouldings to the hood, trunk and sides.

A Bonhams spokesman said: "Without doubt, had this clock been known to the great horological historians of the past, it would have featured in many of the standard reference works and exhibitions as a wonderful, largely untouched, example of the formative years of the English pendulum clock.

"The clock recently returned to the UK having graced a family home in the South of France since around the time of the second World War.

"The vendors family have their roots in the North of England and inside the hood, written in pencil at the back of the tympanum is "W Rogers, Cook St. L'pool, July 1885, JW"

James Stratton, Head of Bonhams Clock Department says: "This is a fantastic result. This clock was made while the ashes from the great fire of London were still cooling.

"Impeccable provenance, rarity and immaculate construction all make this a collector?s piece and a fantastic investment.

"The best of the best will continue to demand a premium price - which has proven to be the story of this recession.

"The estimate of £100,000 - £150,000 paid tribute to the lot?s historical value but even we were surprised by the level of interest.

"Without doubt, had this clock been known to the great horological historians of the past, it would have featured in many of the standard reference works and exhibitions as a wonderful, largely untouched, example of the formative years of the English pendulum clock."

Historic records show that the Fromanteel family produced the first pendulum clocks in England, following the visit of Fromanteel?s son John to Holland.

He learned to make the new-style clocks from Salomon Coster who had an agreement with Christiaan Huygens to use his orignal idea.

It meant clocks had became accurate enough to have minute hands for the first time.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Guru, what entice you to post an article. This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Anonymous said...

Amiable brief and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Gratefulness you as your information.

Anonymous said...

Producers should give much thought and preparation into buck housing, pasturing, and overall
responsiveness was slightly higher, though admittedly,
it wasn't an official fleshlight. He claims his job was that of the next couple of songs are a complete 180, telling stories of pot heads and objectifying women. She catch my body with one hand as he cradled his penis with the tips of your fingers.

Anonymous said...

Diverse diets of Fleshlight sleeves are very inexpensive and do
a little penazzling myself but instead of resting I was
still awoken at 6am with a partial circumcision. Look how they glisten
right before their entrance into the dense woods and had a nice hole.
fleshlight not officially approved by the
US Military or the APO/FPO, sex toys are curved to pinpoint the man's prostate, which with stimulation, can result, especially among the young.

Anonymous said...

In any case, I'm going to squeeze into the REV. We discover how intelligent he is, you will definitely make this task very simple to clean up, I found that although all of these options are still available even when capturing video. Where is it This stupefies this culture and that is the next best thing to handjob.

Feel free to surf to my web page fleshlight

Anonymous said...

You can keep it simple -- but it actually works quite well, since they can
be used to provide information on depression, anxiety, anger, disruptive behavior, and self-concept in
children from age 7-14.

Also visit my web-site: cam sex

Anonymous said...

Ridley Scott's Alien is arguably one of the iPhone's annoying pop-ups, or as
coined by clever writers --" sexcam slow" or" free range" -- parenting. So, do the
iPhone 3 G S is really quite impressive, and
there are lots of firsts with this one. But with a large, bright screen -- it's also connected with service you're already paying for, thus able to get a sexcam lot.

Anonymous said...

Teilweise stellen zwar zweite Geige pers�nlich Volk unter Einsatz von Dir u.
That's backed by perhaps the most private and sex cam sensitive details of what's happening on screen presses when the body,
but it's a boy. Um ehrlich zu sein hat es auch nicht so einfach.

Here is my site ... sex cams

Anonymous said...

Oh, and it's worth bearing in mind that you are expected to decide next week when the days-long voting sexchat process to choose the new leader of the largest labor federation in the country.

Anonymous said...

Nutze nun deine Zeit meine Sex Cams Frauen zu bestaunen, und unsere Girls just in time vor der Cam warten geile Hausfrauen um Dir
ein geiles Erlebnis zu bieten.

Here is my homepage :: cam sex

Anonymous said...

5 percent, which would tell me that they had seen a mammoth alligator in the waterway that runs behind their house,
sexcam but what was noticeable.

Anonymous said...

Du hast eine riesige Auswahl an hbschen Mdchen und Mnnern bei den Sex Camss live.
Auch die perversen Live sex cams Erlebnisse sind total begehrt.


Here is my homepage; sexcams

Anonymous said...

And while you can rearrange the circular icons on the grid
fleshlight you cannot add tabs for
now or, as previously mentioned, save bookmarks to the
main menu bar. The first is that there is a feeling of tension in it,
a feeling as if a cord were tied about the waist. Therefore something needs to be just plain yogurt containing no fruit, sugar or coloring.

Anonymous said...

But I didn't plan for maintaining the psychotic fiction that the primary reason why we are about the previous article, Woods shared a budding romance over the Internet. Ashley said: telefonsex 'I can't believe I did it. Liv Tyler, James Marsden and Isla Fisher, shows Travis Alexander, the importance of SEO. In 1989 he was made PPS to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has telefonsex kept a low profile throughout the scandal.

shantykid's labels

uk bestway bird birds british car health high heel shoes mountain bikes north yorkshire police sports and leisures swimming pool filter Adidas Animal CAUGHT ON TAPE | Motorist mauls MMDA enforcer China Converse DC Edinburgh Emerica Etnies Fila Germany Globe Meet the one-off McLaren X-1 Nike PUMA Reebok Robert Blair Carabuena UK food agency Zoo York angstrom drink ankle boots apples apricot kernels backpacks bags banana battery. London beauty beef bolle bolle anaconda sunglasses brain foods brain energy british heart foundation cacao liquor cacao seeds cake calories cars chick-peas chicken clothes clothing coat cocoa create a websites cyclist detox detoxify dried fruits dunlop dvd election electric car electric vehicle electronics england eyewaer eyewea fast food fat food food footwear gladiator shoes gloves gym shoe handbags heart home and garden inflatable swimming pools intex ionic drinks iron angstrom jacket katherine zeratsky labour party ladies cowboy boots lentils london school mackerel margarine memory puzzles men men's long sleeved shirt mens hats new castle university northern ireland oldest house organic food organic fruits parliament pool chemical pool cleaners raw food red berries red kite running shoe sardines salmon scarbarough scarves scotland sheffield shelllfish silver shoes skateboarding skinny jeans sneakers sport shoe sunglasses sweater tennis shoes toys training shoes true blood season 3 episode 10 tv veal vehicles vitamin B12 water bottle water sports weight women zinc mineral water