The auction of more than 300 clocks in RJ Keighery City Auction Rooms in Waterford city on Monday defied all expectations of contemporary interest in these antique timepieces.
“We sold every single clock and we had the biggest crowd since pre-Covid, with 150 bidders in the room and over 600 online bidders from the USA, the UK, France, Australia, Germany, Austria and other countries,” says Thomas Keighery.
With everything from Georgian grandfather clocks to Victorian and Art Deco wall and mantle clocks to the occasional school and ship clock going under the hammer, Rody and Thomas Keighery had a record auction, selling most items for their top estimates or above.
“We wound as many of the clocks as we could beforehand and most of the grandfather clocks were chiming. Some of the wall clocks weren’t working but all they needed was an oil and an service,” says Thomas.
The top-selling items in the auction were the Patek Philippe ladies’ 18k gold pocket watch, which sold for €6,000, and the grandfather clock made by Waterford-based clockmaker Thomas Cahill, which sold for €5,200.
Buyers ranged from a 98-year-old telephone bidder, who bought a grandfather clock, to a 14-year-old boy who bought a wall clock made by Dublin clockmaker Edward Smyth.
A film-production company also snapped up 30 clocks at the auction.
“People who came to the auction rooms were in awe about how many of these clocks were still working,” says Thomas. “There was much greater interest in the mechanical aspects and the history of these clocks than I had expected, and more younger people buying clocks than I had anticipated.” - Sylvia Thompson
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