The orrery belongs to George Gyori, a Hungarian brought to Australia as a refugee in 1957 by the Red Cross when he was 19. In 1962, George became an Australian citizen and established his own engineering business the following year.
Perhaps it was the profession he followed, or the fact that as a child in Hungary his family could never afford the wristwatch he wanted – whatever the reason he became a keen collector of timepieces.
With financial success, he was able to follow his passion – first with watches and later clocks as his fascination with their mechanics and workmanship grew. Between 1960 and 1980, George regularly visited Sunday markets and metal merchants, both of which he found to be a valuable source of pieces for his collection.
As items became harder to find, he turned his engineering skills to advantage and began making pieces he could not source. Their manufacture was an engineering challenge as George always aimed for the perfect replica – made to the most demanding of engineering tolerances – using his favourite old watch-making machinery as a guide.
In recent years, George, now 81, has decided to sell his comprehensive collection of antique watches, clocks, sundials, chronometers, sextons and telescopes. Sotheby’s held the first sale in May 2008 and is following up with the second under its Sotheby’s Australia banner.
A major highlight is a 17th/18th century ivory, brass and ebony sundial featuring incised Roman numerals and a scene of ships coming into harbour (lot 97). Another is an 1860s French escape movement carriage clock (lot 59) and an 1810 Viennese ormolu grand sonnerie verge escarpment table clock (lot 64).
More than 150 lots of silver, glass, porcelain, furniture, tapestries and Asian works of art in the auction come from a Western Australian collector who has sold his large house in the Perth suburb of Peppermint Grove and moved to a regional part of the state.
Featured amongst the collection are large architectural panels (lot 378), European and Australian paintings and two volumes of Indian erotica (lots 433 and 434).
The auction also contains a rare Australian silver covered presentation cup (lot 309) by Birmingham-trained silversmith Charles Jones, who had been tried and sentenced in Worcester in July 1832 and arrived in Tasmania as a convict in February the following year. The cup was made about 1850, several years after Jones was granted his Certificate of Freedom and established his own business in Hobart.
Another item of interest is the novel Victorian silver mounted glass walrus claret jug (lot 313) made in 1881 by William Leuchars of London.