LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. – At a Craftsman-Lambertville Arts and Crafts auction on Saturday, January 20, a rare L. & J.G. Stickley tall-case clock soared to over five times its high estimate of $60,000, finally hammering down at $322,000 (including buyer’s premium).
In Salem, N.H., R.O. Schmitt Fine Arts recently sold its top lot, a French Industry series clock in the form of an armored fort, lot 261, for $28,600 before a standing-room-only crowd of 310. A rare four-glass mantel regulator with calendar and moon-phase brought in $11,000, and a French cobalt blue lyre clock garnered $5,775 from a Midwestern bidder. Schmitt registered bidders from as far away as Texas, California and Washington state, and offered “real time” Internet bidding, which brought participation from England, Japan and Singapore; the aforementioned French Industry clock went to an Internet bidder in London. A total of $130,000 was spent by cyberspace buyers.
Other rdf_Descriptions of note included a miniature terrestrial globe clock, which sold for $2,475, and an unusual crystal regulator with a “ship’s wheel” acting as the actual balance wheel of the clock, which fetched $3,300.