157,500 CHF
The Music Lesson Jaquet-Droz, Genève, box by Georges Reymond, made for the Chinese market, circa 1785. Very fine and extremely rare 18K gold and enamel, pearl-set oval singing bird box. Three body, hinged, small compartment formed in the base, predominately translucent imperial blue enamel over engine-turning, champlevé enameled borders, four champlevé and gold vases on the band, singing bird aperture with split-pearl-set bezel. The cover of the box finely painted, depicting a lady and her daughter in a rose garden playing the serinette to teach a canary to sing. Oval, 81 x 50 mm, turned pillars, fusee with chain, circular bellows, the bird with moving wings, tail and beak, controlled by a stack of eight cams, bar-type regulator driven from a worm-gear with a safety clutch. Inner gilt protection grill, pierced and engraved with foliage. Punched with Reymond’s mark inside the lid and inside lower compartment.Dim. 88 x 58 x 34 mm. Notes An almost identical singing bird box, previously in the M. H. Plisson Collection, Paris, is described by A. Chapuis and E. Gélis in "Le Monde des Automates", Paris 1928, Vol. II, p. 113-114, fig. 389, and three others, very similar, Fig. 190, 191 and 192. On p. 108 of the same book, Chapuis and Gélis give the following information drawn from the archives of J. F. Leschot. This type of singing bird was always made of 18K gold, and weighed, without the enamel, pearls and mountings, about 5 1/2 ounces (170 gr). The price of a gold and ename
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2004-04-24
