Marlborough's Skinner Inc. Completes $1.9M Auction
COURTESY
Originally sold in 1838, this Holtzapffel & Co. rose engine lathe went for $228,000 at a recent Skinner Inc. auction in Marlborough.
EDD COTE
Skinner Inc. CEO Karen Keane
Clocks aren't just for counting down the minutes until your workday is over. Collectors, even in this economy, are happy to be the highest bidder for the timepieces, as well as other antique technology.
"If you bring truly unique and rare objects to the marketplace, the bidders respond," Robert Cheney, Marlborough-based Skinner Inc.'s director of science, technology and clocks said in an announcement this week.
Need proof? Skinner just pulled in $1.9M in gross sales in a recent auction of items related to science, technology and clocks — with many auction lots netting bids that exceeded Skinner's pre-sale estimates, the auctioneer said.
Tools & Timekeepers
The spotlight item at the Dec. 1 auction was a Holtzapffel & Co. rose engine lathe, which was estimated at $90,000 and was sold for $228,000. The rare lathe was originally sold in 1838, according to Skinner, to London civil engineer John Taylor Esquire.
Ivory-handled Holtzapffel turning tools, likely shown at the London Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, went for $43,200.
Bidding for items from the Theodore R. Crom watch collection also got competitive, Skinner said. Crom was an internationally known expert on horological tools, watches and clocks. An enamel and pearl-set open face gold watch made in 1813 went for nearly $68,000.
Skinner is no stranger to Crom. The auction house sold Crom's tool collection — the largest of its kind — in 2010.
A Growing Business
The recent auction is just the tip of the iceberg for Skinner's success.
Skinner, which was based in Bolton until 2008 and also has a Boston location, has made a name for itself in the world of antiques and fine art. The auction house set a world record in 2004, after it sold a previously unknown Fitz Henry Lane painting in Boston for $5.5 million.
The company — with 70,000 square feet of space at its Marlborough headquarters —has gradually expanded over the past 40 years or so, and has 20 specialty departments with experts in each field on staff. Its auctions also include fine wines cars, manuscripts, books and furniture, according to the company website.
"I think that these objects tell a story, every one of them," Skinner CEO Karen Keane told the Worcester Business Journal earlier this year. "It informs us about our past, which I always thinks gives you a sense of where you might be headed as a culture."
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