Antique pillar dating
The clock market is multi-faceted and the price range is huge.
Thirty-hour clocks, generally less expensive when made (although in the 18th century still costing the equivalent of two years of a farm labourer's wages), were driven by a single weight.These precision timekeepers, often with outwardly simple dials and cases but very substantial six-pillar movements and heavy grid-iron pendulums, have seen some substantial price movements in recent times.Examples by leading makers such as John Arnold, Edward John Dent, Benjamin Vulliamy and Charles Frodsham are commanding record sums.Technical sophistication on any level adds value to a clock.These range from a simple calendar aperture or a strike/silent options (for an uninterrupted night's sleep) to rocking ship automatons and rolling lunar cycle (knowledge of the phase of the moon was of great importance when planning a journey during the hours of darkness) to annual calendar dials and the times of sunrise, high and low tides.As the market for provincially-made clocks has grown (naturally many people wish to own a clock from their locality) specialist publications have been written on a range of British clockmaking centres.
These are typically accompanied by information regarding otherwise obscure local clockmakers - from detailed analysis of surviving examples of their work to the simplest of genealogical data.
More plentiful are the late 17th and early 18th 'furnishing' clocks by lesser names that - if some imperfections and restoration are tolerated - sell in the £8000-20,000 bracket.
A connoisseur market also exists for those clocks designed for precision timekeeping.
The demand for 'golden age' English clocks has been on something of a high for several years.
Bonhams' sale in December 2009 included this Ahasuerus Fromanteel longcase which made £340,000.
The literature is dominated by technical terminology that, although confusing to the uninitiated, is of paramount importance to value.