MARLBOROUGH, MASS. — Skinner, Inc for 2022 has introduced a new format for sales in the clocks, watches and scientific instruments department headed up by Jonathan Dowling. The firm is offering four curated sales this year, with a variety of watches being offered in all four sales and clocks and instruments making periodic appearances. The first sale ran March 21-31 and offered classic sport and dress wristwatches as well as a variety of contemporary and vintage pieces. A red-stained maple Oliver Brackett dwarf clock, Vassalboro, Maine, circa 1840s, jumped its $10/15,000 estimate to land at $118,750, including buyer’s premium. It featured a flat-top case with hinged upper door, reverse-painted floral-decorated tablet and painted Roman numeral iron dial with black surround. Marked “O. Brackett Vassalboro,” its waist door had applied molding and it rested on a high scroll-cut base. It was 29 inches high and was driven by a 30-hour weight-powered movement with iron plates, tin-cased weight and brass-faced pendulum. The sale’s catalog noted that a similar clock is shown in Furniture Treasury by Wallace Nutting (1928), plate 3420, and this specific clock is pictured in a Eugene J. Sussel March 1950 ad in The Magazine Antiques.

Additional highlights from this sale will be discussed in a follow-on review.