Exceptional Horological Sale Celebrat...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Apr 24, 2004

LOT 93

Singing Bird Orange Tree Attributed to Jaquet Droz, Geneva, circa 1780, the porcelain attributed to the Manufacture de La Reine, retailed by Ardiot a Paris. Highly important and extremely rare porcelain singing bird orange tree with three birds and a clock, playing seven tunes on demand or on the hour.

CHF 140,000 - 180,000

EUR 88,000 - 113,000 / USD 109,000 - 140,000

Sold: CHF 146,500

C. Round porcelain vase with six panels painted with flower bouquets separated by gilt porcelain columns, three apertures for winding the clock, the singing bird movement, and changing the tunes, the front with foliate finial, six porcelain feet with gilt decoration, orange tree of paper pulp and painted fabric with white flowers and fruits, an animated bird perching on the top and two sitting among the branches, grass below of cut and painted paper.D. White enamel, Arabic numerals, Gilt brass Louis XVI hands.M. Square, brass full plate, fusee and chain, verge escapement, four-arm brass balance wheel, blued steel balance spring. Music: two tier brass, reversed fusee and chain, fly governor with endless screw, two adjustable wings to regulate the tempo, brass pinned cylinder with eleven pewter pipes, brass lifters, rectangular wooden bellows, string mechanism for the bird which turns, flaps its wings, and moves its beak and tail.Dim. height 67 cm, vase diameter 30 cm.


LOADING IMAGES
Click to full view
Image
Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3 - 17
Movement: 3

Good
Dial: 3 - 01

Notes

From a Swiss Gentleman Pierre Jaquet Droz (1721-1790) Born on July 28, 1721 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Pierre Jaquet Droz was the son of a farmer who was an occasional clockmaker as well. He studied humanities and philosophy in Basel from 1738 to 1739 and then became interested in horology. We know little of him as a person, only that he was sober, serious, taciturn, and very careful in his work. On October 25, 1750, Pierre Jaquet Droz married Marianne Sandoz, the daughter of Civil Lieutenant Abraham Louis Sandoz, who was later to accompany Pierre on his trip to Spain. At the age of thirty-four Pierre Jaquet Droz was left a widower. He never remarried, and seems to have devoted himself to his work as a watchmaker with all the more intensity. In 1758, Jaquet Droz made the long and difficult journey to Spain, to present his works to King Ferdinand VI. When he returned, the sum he brought back enabled him to devote himself to the making of the famous Jaquet Droz automata, the writer, draughtsman, and musician, and to found the successful Jaquet Droz firm, in London and Geneva, for the making of extraordinary mechanical and musical pieces. The second child of Pierre Jaquet Droz and his wife Marianne, Henry-Louis , was born on October 13, 1752. Recognizing that he was a gifted child, his father sent him to Nancy to study music, science, mathematics, physics and drawing. Upon his return from Nancy in 1769, Henry-Louis took his place in his father's workshop, side by side with Jean-Frederic Leschot (1746-1824), an adoptive son. It was the beginning of a close and fruitful partnership between the three men. Pierre Jaquet Droz was the first to make singing bird boxes and enjoyed an excellent reputation for complicated clocks, Neuchâtel clocks and automaton timepieces. When Pierre Jaquet Droz grew old, the firm was taken over by his son Henri and Jean Frédéric Leschot, who changed the name to Jaquet Droz & Leschot. Pierre Jaquet Droz died in Biel in 1790, Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz (1752-1791) He was the second child of Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his wife Marianne. His father sent him to Nancy when he was young to study music, science, mathematics, physics and drawing. Upon his return from Nancy in 1769, Henry-Louis took his place in his father's workshop, side by side with Jean-Frédéric Leschot (1746-1824), a neighbor child who had come to live and work with Pierre around 1756. This was the beginning of a close and fruitful partnership between the tree men. When Pierre Jaquet-Droz grew old, the firm was taken over by his son Henry-Louis and Jean-Frédéric Leschot, and the firm was called Jaquet-Droz & Leschot. A London branch of the Jaquet Droz firm was opened in 1783, with Henry Maillardet as associate and manager, although Henry-Louis traveled often to London to look after business. The Jaquet Droz company moved to Geneva, center of the "Fabrique", in 1784. Pierre Jaquet-Droz died in Biel in 1790, aged 69 years old. Henry-Louis died in Naples in November 1791, at the age of on y 41. After their deaths, Jean Frédéric Leschot took over the firm.