Beyond Time: Skinner’s April sale of Clocks, Watches & Scientific Instruments

BOSTON, MA – Skinner, Inc. presents an auction of Clocks, Watches & Scientific Instruments featuring antique tools and diverse scientific apparatus as well as timepieces of all types in its Marlborough Gallery on April 20 at 10AM.

Previews will be held on April 18, 12PM–5PM, April 19, 12PM–7PM, and April 20, 8AM-9:30AM.

Lot 189, Rare Tiffany & Co. No. 2 Astronomical Master Regulator; Estimate $100,000-$150,000

The top lot is the imposing 96-inch Tiffany & Co. No. 2 Astronomical Master Regulator (Lot 189, estimate: $100,000-150,000). This complex masterpiece of horology has multiple world time and tidal dials, alarm dials, and twenty-four hour slave dials, all above the subsidiary calendar dial showing the month, zodiac signs, the day of the week and month, and leap years.

Another outstanding timekeeper is the Lemuel Curtis Mahogany and Parcel-gilt Girandole Clock (Lot 154, estimate: $7,000-9,000).  Director Pro Tem,  Jonathan Dowling notes that examples rarely show up on the market. This one is especially notable for the original reverse painted throat tablet in a fine mustard and grey paint with a spread eagle over the double shield image and signature.

Fresh-to-market items from three important collections highlight portions of the auction devoted to tools, watches, and scientific apparatus.

A wide range of tools from Roman times to the 19th century are from the extensive collection of  Laurent Adamowicz, entrepreneur and public health activist as well as a passionate collector and scholar of tradesmen’s tools and their markings. Lots include examples from a broad array of trades including carpentry and furniture making, musical instrument making, building construction and much more.

Two notable planes:

Lot 428, 16th Century Italian Iron Plane; Estimate $12,000-16,000

Of special interest among the watches are more models, prototypes, and movements from the collection of John Gelson, the last president of Hamilton Watch Company.  Also noteworthy is a wide selection of 19th and 20th century pocket watches with complications such as split-second chronographs, minute and five-minute repeaters. Makers represented include Patek Philippe, IWC (International Watch Co.) Zenith, and Vacheron Constantin.

Small-scale scientific instruments and models from, the Leon Stabinsky collection offer the appeal of the unusual, the miniature, and the ingenious. In addition to anemometers, pocket globes, theodolites, and barometers, there are more esoteric items such as baroscopes and chondrometers.

Additionally, there are such important and unusual scientific items such as:

Lot 678, Matthaeus Greuter Celestial Table Globe; Estimate $10,000-$15,000

Louis Auzoux Full Body Medical Teaching Model (Lot 549, estimate $8,000-12,000)

This diverse sale ranges across centuries, around the globe, and over many scientific and mechanical disciplines. As well as esoteric tools and fine clocks, offerings include affordable and eminently wearable modern wristwatches and a choice selection of early to contemporary fountain pens.