Watch Paul I

At yesterday's auction at Christie's in London sold a desk clock that belonged, according to family legend owners tsar Paul I (picture is clickable). Successful bid is more than ten times surpassed the expectations of experts and totaled 601,250 pounds, or about 967 thousand dollars. Gold-plated watches, jeweled, Christie's experts have dated around the year 1765 and estimated at 50-80 thousand pounds. According to them, the clock has been set up in accordance with French and Swiss tradition of the second half of the XVIII century London master James Cox. Since the beginning of the XIX century belonged to the family of a German clock Baron Ludwig Heinrich von Nicolai until the mid XX century were kept in the family estate of Mon Repos near Vyborg. Background Nicolai was a teacher of Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, and after the start of his reign in 1796, he was appointed member of the Cabinet and the president of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.