More of a curiosity than a clock but a decorator’s dream, this life-size caricature of a smiling Chinese man clutching a willow-pattern plate with gilt dragon hands, (right) emerged in the Ayr rooms of Thomas R. Callan (17.5% buyer’s premium) on May 25.
Standing 5ft 4in (1.63m) tall, it was by the successful Bond Street retailer Walter Thornhill (1807-87) whose inventions and luxury goods were exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. His patents included a series of sumptuous travelling cases and an anti-garrotting device – basically an adjustable steel dog collar with ribbons on the female version.
This clock had a label to verso reading The chinaman clock from Prince of Nepal’s collection – thought to be a name Thornhill gave to a line of Oriental-influenced decorative objects. Entered by a local vendor whose descendant had bought it 60 years at an Ayr auction, it sold to a local private buyer at a top-estimate £6000.