883,500 CHF
The Nightingale. Attributed to Frères Rochat, Geneva, circa 1820, made for the Chinese market. Exceptional and extremely rare gold and enamel, split-pearl-set miniature singing bird cage. Notes Just as miniaturization in watchmaking led to the creation of remarkable miniature movements with repeating mechanisms that could be put into rings, so the miniaturization of singing bird mechanisms, in particular the change from serinette to the piston-controlled movement, led to the creation of these remarkable small singing bird cages.The present cage with its movement in which the long duration of the song is achieved by a very unconventional and ingenious means: shifting the cams via a wheel mounted concentrically to them but rotating at a different speed- a very elegant and unusual solution which saved space and allowed for further miniaturization. When admiring this and the next lot, one can not escape the feeling that they are the culmination of the decades, if not centuries, of exploration and experience of precision mechanics as well as of goldsmithery.For those interested in mathematics: The 2nd wheel of 36 teeth drives the cam wheel of also 36 teeth normally would be a pinion. The 2nd wheel has another 27-tooth wheel at the top driving a 36-tooth wheel loosely set on the cam wheel arbor. Above the 8 cams is a lifting cam which rotates with them. The loosely mounted wheel on the 2nd arbor rotates during the song 4 revolutions of the cams 27x4/36= 3 times. Since during
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2003-10-11
