Collector's Pocket Watches, Wristwatc...

Grand Havana Room, New York, Sep 20, 2001

LOT 53

The Knife GrinderUnsigned, Swiss, circa 1820.Fine and unusual, quarter-repeating, striking jack and automaton.

C. three body, Empire, engine-turned, hinged gilt brass cuvette. D. white enamel chapter ring with Breguet numerals, the center with a fine varicolored automaton scene applied on a polished steel ground, with two cherub Jacks striking the hours and quarters on two bells, with a flower urn on a bridge between them, below a knife-grinder automaton whose grinding stone is driven by a large wheel turned by a boy. Blued steel "Breguet" hands. M. 45 mm ø, gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillarsfusee with chain, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance-spring, gilt brass continental cock. Repeating on gongs by depressing the pendant.Diam. 54 mm.A similar watch from the F. Conty Collection, Geneva, is described and illustrated in A. Chapuis and E. Gelis , "Le Monde des Automates", 2nd volume, page 35, fig. 297.