The most expenisve clock sold at auction is the Rothschild Fabergé Clock Egg, which was made in 1902 by Peter Carl Fabergé. On 28 Nov 2007, this ornate timepiece sold for £8,980,500 (then $18,824,655) at Christies in London, UK, on 28 November 2007.
The clock has two spring barrels driving four gear-trains. The first powers the clock; the second the striking mechanism; the third set of gears power an elaborate gold enamelled cockerel that rises from a trapdoor in the top of the egg every hour, and moves as if to crow; the final gear train drives a tiny set of bellows that push air through a set of flutes, imitating the cockerel’s crow.
This clock is an example of a “Fabergé Egg”. These were highly ornate decorative pieces made by the House of Fabergé – a jeweler in St Petersburg, Russia – between 1885 and 1917. Most were designed by Peter Carl Fabergé (aka Karl Gustavovich Fabergé) and assembled by his “workmasters” Mikhail Perkhin and Henrik Wigström. They were masterpieces of the jeweler’s craft, requiring a year of work by highly skilled artisans and using only the finest materials (principally enameled gold and precious stones, but examples were made using cut-glass, jade and even finely turned wood).
The first was ordered by Tsar Alexander III as an easter present for his wife, and the Russian royal family would go on to be the primary customer for future examples (ordering 52 out of the approximately 69 made). Only eight of the eggs contained a clock movement, and the Rothschild Egg is one of only three with an automaton.
The Rothschild Egg is named for the person who commissioned it, Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild – a scion of the French branch of the wealthy Rothschild banking family. It was made as a gift for Germaine Halphen, to celebrate her engagement to Béatrice’s younger brother Édouard. It remained in the private collection of the Rothschild family, and was entirely unknown to Fabergé scholars until it went on sale in 2007. In 2014 it was donated to the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia.
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History of Auctioneering
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The most expensive Pokémon trading card sold at auction is the “Pikachu Illustrator” card, which sold for $900,000 (£662,634 / €794,648), on 23 February 2022.
The hologram trainer promo card was sold at Goldin Auctions. The rare card – one of only 40 copies known to exist – had a Near Mint 7 condition rating, and is popular with collectors due to it being designed by Atsuko Nishida (Japan), who is credited as the original creator of Pikachu. It was never originally sold and was only released as a prize in a 1998 illustration contest.
Offers started as low as $75,000 on 10 February before rising to the record-breaking fee. The previous record was also for a “Pikachu Illustrator” card.
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The most expensive Olympic memorabilia sold at auction is a gold medal won by sprinter Jesse Owen at the Berlin Olympics held in 1936. It was sold for the price of $1,466,574 (£942,553) to Ron Burkle (USA) during an online auction in California, USA, on 8 December 2013. Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in the 100 metres, 200 metres, Long Jump and 4×100 relay. It is not known which particular discipline this medal was awarded for. The medal was sold by SCP Auctions on behalf of Elaine Plaines-Robinson, wife of entertainer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. Bill Robinson had been given the medal as a thank-you present by Owens after he helped the athlete find work in entertainment on his return from Germany. The buyer, Ron Burkle, is the co-owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL franchise and also owns William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize for Literature. The medal holds historical significance as Owens, an African-American, won the medals with Adolf Hitler looking on. The Nazi leader had hoped the Olympic Games in Berlin would promote Ayran racial supremacy only to be frustrated by the performances of Owens and fellow African-American athletes.
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An evening auction of “Post-War and Contemporary Art” held by Christie’s of New York (USA) on 12 November 2014 raised a record art auction total of $852,887,000 (£598,244,000). The auction featured works by artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichenstein, Willem de Kooning and Jeff Koons. Two silkscreen-on-linen prints by Warhol – “Triple Elvis (Ferus Type)” and “Four Marlons” – alone made $81.9 m (£57.5 m) and $69.6 m (£48.8 m), respectively.
The evening “Post-War and Contemporary Art” sale was supplemented by a day sale on 13 November 2014, which raised a further $112 m (£78.5 m), bringing the overall figure for the sale to $964,806,000 (£676,748,000). In total, three pieces sold for over $50 m (£35 m), 23 pieces sold for more than $10 m (£7 m), and 69 pieces went under the hammer for in excess of $1 m (£0.7 m).
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A sale of Action Man and Star Wars figurines, along with accessories including playsets, costumes and vehicles, sold for a record £180,000 ($256,800) in an auction held by Vectis Auctions of Thornaby, Teeside, UK, on 27 May 2015. The collection was sold by retired toy sales rep Doug Carpenter, who had been allowed to keep the stock when manufacturer Palitoy ceased trading in the 1980s – it had been languishing in his garage ever since.
The hundreds of pieces auctioned included a Princess Leia doll, which sold for £3,600 ($5,136), and a rare Action Man judo outfit, which sold for £6,480 ($9,245). Even an empty cardboard box in which Star Wars figures had been packaged after production fetched £160 ($230).
Palitoy was a well-known toy brand in the 1980s. As well as Star Wars and Action Man, it produced the Care Bears, Mainline Model Railways and Tiny Tears dolls. Palitoy closed its manufacturing business in 1985.
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In 1948, just a decade after the first wholesale auto auction opened, C.B. Drake assembles auto auctioneers, and a small trade organization called the National Auto Auction Protection Association (NAAPA) was founded to nurture and safeguard this fledgling industry of about 340 auctions in the United States. Today, what is now the private, nonprofit National Auto Auction Association has grown from those early years into a large, dynamic and diverse group of professionals representing all segments of the vast remarketing community.
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J.M. “Martin” Rawls held the first wholesale auto auction
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In 1954 NAAPA changed its name to National Auto Auction Association (NAAA)
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Massart Auctioneers Inc., your Green Bay WI auctioneers, was founded in 1974 by Bob and Pat Massart. They purchased an old dairy building and converted it into an auction house facility where they conduct weekly online auctions. In 1995, they were joined by their son, Damien & in 2000 his wife Michelle joined the business. This second-generation, family-owned and operated business is dedicated to providing the best service to their customers and clients.
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The National Auctioneers Association Granted Tax Exempt Status in 1970
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