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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In 2001 Bonhams & Brooks merged with Phillips Son & Neale to form a new UK company trading as Bonhams. Phillips Son & Neale had been based in 101 New Bond Street, which subsequently became the new headquarters of Bonhams. The building consisted of seven different freeholds and had been described as “a Dickensian rabbit warren”. The first of the sites to be acquired was Blenstock House, an Art Deco building at the junction of Blenheim Street and Woodstock Street, eventually acquiring the complete building in 1974.
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In 2002 Bonhams purchased Butterfields, a leading auction house on the West Coast founded in 1865. Bonhams changed Butterfields’ name to Bonhams & Butterfields, and Malcolm Barber, formerly of Brooks, became the chief executive officer of the American subsidiary. Bonhams remained the company’s brand name outside of the United States.
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in March 2022, Bonhams acquired the US auction house Skinner Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The new company is called Bonhams Skinner.
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In March 2022, Bonhams acquired the Danish auction house, Bruun Rasmussen for an undisclosed sum.
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Warlow v Harrison (1859) is an English contract law case that talks about the liability of an auctioneer when he fails to sell the auctioned property to the highest bona fide bidder in an auction without reserve. The defendant, an auctioneer, offered a horse for sale at a public auction with no reserve. The plaintiff attended the auction and placed a bid of 60 guineas. The horse’s owner placed a bid of 61 guineas. The plaintiff declined to make any further bids, and the defendant (who appears to have been unaware that the bidder was the owner) put down the hammer to sell the horse to the owner for 61 guineas. The plaintiff asserted that the horse belonged to him because he was the highest bona fide (true) bidder at an unreserved auction. The plaintiff claimed in his pleadings that the defendant served as his agent to carry out this contract.
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“Est-Ouest” means “East” and “West” in French. Est-Ouest Auctions, the first international and oldest Japan-based international auction house founded in 1984, plays an important role in Auction development by holding many different auctions in both Japan and overseas. We aim at being an auction house that brings our client the arts from both Oriental and Western to have different cultural experience by having 5-6 auctions per annum.
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- Total Eren: 75 MW at €44.88/MWh
- Guris: 74.88 MW at €74/MWh
- Verbund: 72.6 MW at €74.95/MWh
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Heritage Auctions is the largest collectibles auctioneer and third largest auction house in the world, as well as the largest auction house founded in the U.S. We are also the undisputed Internet leader in our field, with more than 1.83 million online bidder-members registered on HA.com from all 195 countries. This loyal and growing community of collectors is a testament to the usefulness of our website, our reputation for professional business practices and our vast expertise in the field of art and collectibles. Established in 1976, Heritage offers a wide range of U.S. & World Coins, Rare Currency, Fine & Decorative Art, American Art, Illustration Art, Modern & Contemporary Art, Urban Art, Comic Books & Comic Art, Movie Posters, Entertainment & Music Memorabilia, Jewelry & Timepieces, Luxury Handbags, Sports Collectibles, Historical & Political Memorabilia, Rare Books & Manuscripts, Ethnographic Art, & Space Exploration Memorabilia, Civil War Memorabilia, Photographs, Nature & Science, Fine and Rare Wine, Luxury Real Estate, Pop Culture Collectibles, and more.
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Marshfield – The Wisconsin Auctioneer’s Association elected as President, O.E. Allison of Kingston; vice-president, Will Ebbe of Marshfield; secretary-treasurer, J.H. Dennhardt of Neenah, the assemblyman who fathered the law now in force prohibiting liquor being sold or given away at auctions. Neenah will be the meeting place next year.
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