Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 93

?Views of Switzerland? Charles Abraham Bruguier, Geneva, enamel attributed to Louis Dufaux père, 1840s, made for the Italian market. Exceptional gold, marble, mother-of-pearl and painted on enamel, ruby and emerald-set musical singing bird box in the form of a paperweight. Accompanied by later leather fitted box. To be sold without reserve.

C. In the shape of a large paperweight, the base panels very finely painted on enamel with landscapes of Lake Leman; Lake Constance, Lausanne, and the Jura, the rounded corners painted with flower bouquets, bordered by black champlevé enamel painted with azure and white accents, the tip and the handle with floral and foliate repoussé gold painted in various colors of enamel, the bird?s nest painted with flowers on a translucent red background over flinqué, ruby- and emerald-paste-set lower border, top border in champlevé enamel, the lid painted with flower bouquets on a white enamel ground with ruby and emerald paste frame. M. 60 x 48 mm, brass, fusee and chain, the bird rotating right and left and moving its beak, tail, and wings, the melody, and circular bellows controlled by a stack of eight spring-loaded cams moving vertically along their arbor for a long duration of song, the shifting facilitated by an L-shaped lever pushing the cams down via a cam set on the extension of the 2nd wheel, fly regulator on a worm-gear with fixed weights on each wing, the movements of the bird are controlled by an unusual and complex mechanism consisting of two fusee-like chains going through the handle. Punched on the movement with three tulips. Dim: Height 115 mm, base 125 x 102 mm.