LONDON.- Bonhams is to sell an exceptional 17th century German Automata Turmchenuhr – a clock from the legendary collection of Harry Vehmeyer. It is estimated at £100,000-150,000.

Made from gilt bronze, the clock is beautifully and elaborately decorated.

Towering over the piece is a cupola surmounted by a standing warrior brandishing a staff in his right hand and steadying a shield engraved with four eagles and the initials FGMC with his left. The initials almost certainly refer to the clock's owner whose identity is now lost.

In the centre of the cupola stands Diana surrounded by two naked female attendants and the figure of Actaeon sporting the head of a stag. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses Actaeon is turned into a stag and torn to pieces by Diana's hunting dogs for spying on the goddess as she bathed.

Outside the cupola a huntsman and five woodland creatures rotate on the hour.

The clock was made by Nikolaus Schmidt in Augsburg in the early 1600s. Bonhams Head of Clocks, James Stratton explains: “At that time Augsburg was one of the two major centres of clock-making in Germany and had developed a particular reputation for high-status clocks. An imposing piece like this – it's nearly 1.5ft high – was intended not just to tell the time but also to impress any who saw it".

The clock comes from the collection of Harry Vehmeyer who over the course of a long life - he died aged 90 in 2008 - built up one of the finest private collections of horology in Europe. Harry and his wife Olga believed that clocks were not simply mechanical objects but should be considered works of art in their own right.

Other clocks from the Vehmeyer collection in the sale include, a late-17th century gilt brass table timepiece by Thomas Tompion (£120,000-150,000); a mid-17th century German table clock with a sundial (£50,000-70,000) and an extremely rare mid-17th century Turmchenuhr (£70,000-90,000).