Provenance: Given in 1841 by the Hon. John Walpole, when Chargé d'Affaires at Valparaiso in Chile, to Amelia, wife of James Macleay (1811 -1892), his Secretary, on the latter?s departure for a post in South Africa. Mrs Amelia Macleay bequeathed the casket to her daughterin- law Mabel (née Anderson), who passed it on to her daughter Lina (1868 - 1935). Lina married Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot, Bt. who commanded the First Cruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, where he died, along with his entire crew, in HMS Defence. On the death of Lina, Lady Arbuthnot, it passed to her only daughter, Rosalind (Mrs. Anthony Anson, 1906 -1985), who placed it on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where it remained from 1968 until 2004. The Hon. John Walpole (1787- 1864?). A British soldier, politician and diplomat. He was a member of the famous Walpole family that included Sir Robert Walpole, 1st. Earl of Orford, (1676 - 1745), generally considered the first British Prime Minister (1721 - 1742) and Horatio (Horace) Walpole (1717 - 1797) historian, author and creator of the famous ?Gothic? house, Strawberry Hill. John Walpole, having embarked on a military career, took part in the Peninsula Campaign in which the British, under the Duke of Wellington, drove the Napoleonic army out of the Iberian Peninsula. He joined the Coldstream Guards on 25th. June 1811 while they were camped near St Oloia with the rank of Captain. During operations around Burgos, between 18 - 21 October 1813, Walpole was wounded in action. Perhaps his most famous command was at the Battle of Waterloo, on June 18th., 1815 when, as a Lt.-Colonel, he led the élite Light Company of the 2nd. Battalion Coldstream Guards at Hougoumont, a fortified chateau within its own grounds of orchard, garden and woods, on the extreme right of the east-west British line that crossed the Brussels road to the south of the city. It was actually nearer to the French line than the British, and its defense against superior French forces paid a key role in the battle. On 19 June the Coldstream Guards left Hougoumont to go to Nivelles, and subsequently to Le Cateau and from there to an encampment in the Bois de Boulogne on the outskirts of Paris, where they remained as troops of occupation. At the end of January, 1816, the Coldstream Guards were the last to leave Paris to march to Cambrai. Walpole retired from the Army in 1826. From 1827 to 1831, he sat among the liberals in the House of Commons, where he supported parliamentary reform. He became secretary to Lord Palmerston and was sent to Chile as Consul General (1833 - 1841) and chargé d'affaires (1841-1847?). During his time in Chile, he encountered the naturalist Charles Darwin. He retired from public life in 1849. Although at present it is not known exactly how The Hon. John Walpole acquired the casket, it is significant to note that he was stationed on the outskirts of Paris, as part of the so-called army of occupation, from June 1815 to January 1816. He would undoubtedly have visited central Paris on a regular basis, and with the cessation of hostilities, trade and commerce increased rapidly, notably with foreign visitors. Indeed, a study of the Breguet archives confirms that military officers and diplomats became regular customers. The French hallmarks on the gold instruments are for the period 1809 -1819, which covers the period in question. There is currently no explanation of the significance of the letter P. stamped on the leather box lid, but it seems unlikely to be the initial of the owner, since it is surrounded by a scallop shell shaped escutcheon, mirroring the casket itself - not a usual framing for a coat-of arms or monogram. It has been suggested that it may be the initial of the jeweller who supplied it. Such objects were rarely imported into England, and since it was gifted by Walpole in 1841, who would presumably have taken it to Chile when he travelled there in or before 1833, it seems unlikely that he would have acquired it ?second-hand?. On the balance of probabilities, it would not be unreasonable to believe that John Walpole acquired this extraordinary object during his residence in Paris from 1815 to 1816; a supposition that is strongly supported by the dates inscribed and attributable to the various components of the piece. The Makers: Freres Rochat: Sons of David Rochat, who was a Master watchmaker from Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux - François Elisée, Frédéric, and Samuel Henri. David Rochat and sons worked for Jaquet-Droz and Leschot, providing ebauches of singing bird mechanisms, at the end of the 18th century. Around 1813, these three Rochat brothers moved to Geneva and went into business on their own, soon splitting up into two groups. François remained on his own (later aided by his son, Ami Napoléon), and Frédéric and Samuel worked together, (with Frédéric's sons, Antoine and Louis). FR is usually thought to stand for these Rochat brothers, although it is possible that the signature FR may stand for a single name: François Rochat, or Frederic Rochat.There were also other Rochats working in Geneva at the time. Among them is Louis Rochat, originally from l'Abbaye in the Vallée de Joux, who is considered to be the maker of a piece with clock and singing birds (today in the Peking Museum) which won a prize from the Genevan Réunion des Industriels in 1829. In 1814, Louis and his brother François formed an association along with Pierre Daniel Campiche, called Frères Rochat et Compagnie. To complicate matters, there were ties between the various Rochats. For example, Louis Rochat from l'Abbaye worked with Antoine (son of Frédéric) for a time, around 1850. It is however clear that the Rochat family produced a majority of the finest and most complex singing bird objects. LeCoultre Makers of music boxes and musical movements, active during the first half of the 19th century, recorded at rue Rousseau 60 and rue de la Corraterie 10. François LeCoultre is known for having introduced, in 1814, groups of two or three tuned teeth in place of the single teeth that had previously been used. He worked with his brother Henri, making musical movements for boxes, watches, and snuff boxes. ?Dictionnaire des horlogers genevois?, Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, 1998. Carrisot (also Carrisol) A maker of springs, working during the late 18th and early 19th century. Virtually all the original mainsprings of the Frères Rochat have the name Carissot scratched on them, along with a date.