Big collection of clocks auctioned

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 5

Big collection of clocks auctioned

Nelson reporter The largest collection of old clocks to be auctioned in Nelson, if not New Zealand, went under the hammer on Saturday evening. The 120-clock collection, was part of an antique offering which drew buyers from many parts of New Zealand. This was the first such auction in Nelson for about four years, and an antique dealer-auctioneer, Mr Ron Warwick, described it as “most successful.”

Buyers spent about 540,000 bn the 400 pieces offered. The clocks were collected by the late Mr Ernie Thomson, of Brightwater. Mr Thomson was known in the district as “a great fixer of most things” and he had taken lip clock collecting fairly late in life, said Mr Warwick. The clocks he collected were mostly those brought to New Zealand in the early days. The oldest, an American

Chauncey Jerome (circa 1840) sold for 5300. The top clock price was $lO5O for a Vienna Regulator wall clock. Most of the collection was sold.

The antique piece most sought after was a Moorcroft vase standing about 380 mm high with a pomegranate design. It was knocked down to a Christchurch buyer for $2125. A set of nine gold medallions depicting the Queens of England, and one of only 250 sets struck in 1977 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee, was passed in before reaching the reserve price of $4600 — the actual price of gold on today’s market. An old Tower pistol brought $475 and a tower musket, used in the New Zealand land wars, brought $4OO.

Mr Warwick believes Nelson to be one of the great antique centres of New Zealand and is planning further auctions “but only when the good pieces come to hand.”