Review of May 5 and 6, 2007 Horological Auction

The May 5 and 6 auction  fetches $700,000+ at Jones & Horan.   Day one consisted of a sampling of clocks, scientifica, and modestly valued pocket watches.  The high point of Saturday's sale was a small sized bracket clock which sold to a local attendee for $15,000. A McCabe went for $4,000, a large French skeleton for $4500, and a tall case from Pennsylvania went out at $12,500 which seemed to be a lot of clock for the money. 

There were some very fine buys as well with a French calendar going for just $500, a good straight Moncas needing overall cleaning up went soft at $325.  A carriage clock with 5 min repeat had many bidders and finally sold on the phone for $2000 while a Grand Sonnerie hit $3000.

A number of microscopes went out the door with just casual interest and seemingly low prices. Ball watches with good dials remained strong and there was greater than normal interest in keywinds which have been very soft for the last two years. (This interest was mainly the result of a buyer from Gettysburg who resells to Civil War buffs and continued to stay on these keywinds for both days.)   Someone enhanced their Horological library with two volumes on automata for a cool $1100.  The books were from 1928 and author signed.  

Day two was for major players and deep pockets. There were many fine gold cases but a Southern gentleman hit them hard dropping a little over $50,000 on these alone. In addition to his fine gold cases, he also left with a Cartier thin pocketwatch  at $8000, and a nice complication at $29,000.  An unusual English Horse pedometer was seemingly a good buy at $7300, a Patek minute repeater with later replaced glass cuvette went at a strong $12,500. A Jules Jurgensen repeater sold at $10,400, another small Jurgensen time only sold at $2200.  A surprise to all was a movement only by Lange & Sohne which went back to Germany at $3100.  Patek pockets were from $1700-$3000. Vacherons from $800-2000. American watches did well with box hinges selling $1200 to $2400.  An Amn Watch Co at $1600, Appleton Tracy at 1800, Elgin Wheeler at $1300, another Elgin at $2800, a model 6 Illinois at $1900 small ladies pendants did well with prices such as $1000, $1200, $1400, etc. Wrists sold well with a later Daytona bringing $9000, ladies Patek at $4600, a clean Schauffenhausen at $9500, and a man's Patek at $3200. 

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