Recently Bonhams have announced that they are to redevelop the back of their Bond Street site at a cost of £30m, and separately, that they are raising their buyer's premium to 25% plus VAT. This is the rate of premium payable on most clocks. The £30m investment is a sign that Bond Street is buoyant, driven by Fine Art if not clocks, and as Bonhams is the only London auctioneer still holding dedicated clock auctions, Tavernicus wishes them success with their investment.
In the buyer's premium announcement it was declared that there was a need to maintain competitiveness with Sothebys and Christies. Fine, but that set me thinking. A tavern clock (see below) sold this week by Christies at South Ken in their Interiors series, had a hammer price of £3500 which becomes, at the new rate, £4550, fully loaded. The question is who pays the difference and who benefits? Buyer, Auctioneer or Seller?? If the winning bidder is a dealer then it is clear that in the price sensitive band of up to £25k the premium is just another cost which has to be included in the margin equation as the premium cannot then be passed on to a retail buyer as a supplement. In the super-price bracket of say £100k then the premium can be lost as the ultimate buyer is acquiring a trophy and what's another few thousand between friends.
So, in the normal world, the buyer's premium must drive the hammer price down as if the premium were zero in our example above then the hammer price would rationally have been £4550, surely. So in effect the seller bears the commissions (buying and selling commisssion combine at about 38%). These are London economics where overheads must be awesome. It might be argued that visiblity in the capital drives up hammer prices but the internet is putting paid to that argument as you can bid from your armchair anywhere in the world and the search portals make for a near perfect market.
So, back to lot 428 at Christies SK on the 21st June. The only clock in the sale, it was offerred as an unsigned 18th Century dial octagonal dial with later parts. Tavernicus viewed the clock, as always (well nearly always), as it seemed very similar to the three known octagonals by Orpheus Sumart of Clerkenwell, one of which is featured in Ch4 of the book "THE TAVERN CLOCK". In Lot 428 the dial and case are near identical to the known examples with some alteration to the removable "door" and base. The offset wound movement is a twin of that on page 39 of my book but for the 5th wheel in the train. There is no hour bridge which is a Sumart feature. The pendulum is forward mounted as with the other examples. This clock was a gift to an official in the 1919 Lord Mayor's Pageant, (brass plaque), and it is likely that all the chinoiserie was redone then. The signature may have been lost then; certainly none is evident under UV light inspection.
The price at under £5k reflects the alterations and absence of signature but it is nonetheless a correct example with honest alterations that is a fine decorative piece. There is little or no doubt that this clock came from the "studio" of Orpheus Sumart.
