Amour et FidélitéUnsigned

Amour et FidélitéUnsigned, Geneva, casemaker's mark coronet above P. G. incuse, circa 1790.Very fine and rare 18 ct. gold and enamel musical scent flask fitted with a watch with visible balance, made for the Chinese market, in original fitted box. Lyre-shaped, gilded and entirely engraved, going barrel, cylinder escapement, three-arm balance set with diaonds.Musical movement on the back side of the flask, gilt, fully engraved, pinned barrel playing by four hammers on four bells, five-wheel train, last pinion with eight-winged fly.Case stamped P.G. under a coronet.Dim. Length 108 mm, width 48 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, pages 386-387. Notes A very similar flask is preserved in the Louvre Musem (inv R 359).Jaquet-Droz, Pierre (1721-1790)Born on July 28, 1721 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Pierre Jaquet-Droz was the son of a farmer who was an occasional clockmaker as well. He studied humanities and philosophy in Basel from 1738 to 1739 and then became interested in horology. We know little of him as a person, only that he was sober, serious, taciturn, and very careful in his work. On October 25, 1750, Pierre Jaquet-Droz married Marianne Sandoz, the daughter of Civil Lieutenant Abraham Louis Sandoz, who was later to accompany Pierre on hitrip to Spain. At the age of thirty-four Pierre Jaquet-Droz was left a widower. He never remarried, and seems to have devoted himself to his work as a watchmaker with all the more intensity.The second child of Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his wife