Date: Fri 24-Apr-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: DAVIDS

Quick Words:

Tim's

Full Text:

Black Forest at Tim's Postsale

w/cuts

BRISTOL, CONN. -- Clocks have always been a mainstay of Tim's Auctions, and

his most recent sale on March 29 was no exception. Thus it was with little

surprise that one of the top lots of the sale was a timepiece.

The surprise was that it was a Black Forest style monumental wall clock, and a

further surprise was the hefty prices that Black Forest pieces brought

throughout the day.

"They are really after the Black Forest stuff these days," said auctioneer Tim

Chapulis. "The amount of calls we received for not only the clocks but for

other Black Forest accessories was amazing."

The new trend emerged during Tim's Fifth Annual Cabin Fever auction as a

monumental clock Black Forest clock with carved hawk crest attracted attention

from around the country. The chalet form clock was carved with a bugle in the

center encircling the face of the clock, with game, a rabbit and pheasant,

hanging from the sides. The face of the clock was also heavily carved with

acorns, oak leaves and foliate.

Bidding on the rare clock opened at $5,000 with a bid from the a buyer in the

capacity crowd. Several in the gallery competed for the piece, although in the

end a Midwestern phone bidder claimed the lot at $12,100, including premium.

The strength of the first clock carried through to all the other Black Forest

examples, according to Chapulis, with a trumpeter shelf clock selling at

$2,375; an ornate wall clock with birds in nest carved crest, $1,540; a cuckoo

24-inch wall clock with carved bird of prey crest and double quail cuckoos,

$1,375; and a bird and fox carved Black Forest wall clock, $990.

Several Black Forest items were consigned to the sale too late to be

advertised including a shelf clock in chalet form, which sold for $1,540. Also

sold was a Black Forest music chair with deer antler inlay at 1,072.50, a

jewelry box with carved birds, $990; a wolf's head coat rack, $850; and an

expandable desktop book rack with carved dog and fox, $632.50.

Another piece that attracted quite a bit of interest was an elegant rosewood

parlor table with marble top that some felt was attributable to either Meeks

or Roux. Bidding on this lot was also intense with phone bidders pushing the

price all along the way. However, as the piece reached the $11,000 mark with

the advancement coming from a phone bidder, a buyer in the gallery, determined

not to be outdone by the telephones, jumped the bid to $13,000 and claimed the

lot at $14,300.

Other clocks in the sale that did well included an Atkins weight driven wall

regulator selling at $3,080; a Simon Willard banjo clock, $2,200; a Howard No.

5 banjo, $2,420; a Chauncey and Ives pillar and scroll, $2,007.50; and a

French gilt shelf clock with Starr, N.Y., movement, $2,080. Three large

regulators were consigned just prior to the sale and were sold unadvertised. A

large oak Ansonia General brought $2,275; a walnut Welch No. 18, $2,080; and a

large oak Waterbury, $1,540.

A Swiss coin operated music box with 13 inch cylinder, five bells and a drum

did well at $4,950, a Civil War daguerreotype took $385, a large Wavecrest

plaque garnered $2,475, and a 1976 Mercedes 450 SL brought $14,300.

A nine-foot-tall tiger maple Victorian secretary bookcase was hammered down at

$3,685; a full-size brass and porcelain bed, $3,025; and a marble-top pier

table, $1,760.

Prices include the 10 percent buyer's premium. For further information,

contact Tim Chapulis, 1185 Farmington Avenue, Bristol, Conn. 06010, or call

860/589-0017.

-David S. Smith