STAR SALES

A Hitchens painting, a museum-quality teapot and a Parisian chocolate box are all top of the lots

- Caroline Wheater

1. A clock to captivate

Estimate £20,000-£30,000 Sold £100,800

At Christie's earlier this year, 250 works of art were consigned for sale by three antiquesdealer dynasties based in London, Paris and Geneva. The goodies included furniture, decorative arts and clocks made by some of the most celebrated French craftsmen and factories of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, such as furnituremaker André-Charles Boulle. Among them was lot 84, a sinuous, mid 18th-century, gilded 'cartel' clock, designed to hang directly on the wall. The clock's movement was made by master clockmaker Jean-Baptiste Baillon, who was famous for his pocket watches decorated with diamond flowers. Clock cases were supplied to Baillon by some of the greatest craftsmen of the day, including father and son Jacques and Philippe Caffieri, whose work this case is likely to be. The case, decorated in the rocaille style, which blends exoticism and naturalism, features scrolling foliage, trailing flowers, a Chinese figure, a mythical dragon and a ho ho bird perched beneath the dial. During our research we'd only been able to trace two other examples of this model of clock, both incomplete, making this by far the best example known,' says Amelia Walker, head of Private & Iconic Collections at Christie's. "The magical combination of rarity, quality, exquisite design and condition pushed the hammer price far beyond the estimate.' christies.​com

2. Made in Chelsea Estimate £5,000-£8,000

Sold £39,000