An identical singing bird box, but with mirror symmetr ical enamel painting on the lid of the bird and forming a pair with this one, is in the Musee Inleomalional d7lorlogerieat La Chaux-de- Fonds and described and illust r ated by Catherine Cardinal in her book: L'Horlogerie dap s l'Histoii'e, les Arts et les Sciences - Chefs d'oeuvre du Mnsde International d'Horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds. Editions Scriptar, Lausanne 1983, page 68. The shape of the movements and the fine gilt protection grills of these two singing birds confirm that they were blanks destined to be mounted in the oval gold boxes of the type for which Jaquet Droz was so famous. The existence of the pail; virtually rules out the possibility that original gold boxes were destroyed later. The most plausable explanation is that they were left in stock, finished and cased in the fashion we now find them, in the mid 19th century. William Hamilton, R.A. (1751-1801) , was an English history and portrait painter, who became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1784 and a member in 1789. Hamilton travelled to Italy with Antonio Zucchi and lived there for several years. He paintecl many portraits of opera singers and did illustrations for various works, among which Boydell's Shakespeare, Bowyers' History of England, and Macklin's Bible. A number of his works are housed in museums. In London, many of his watercolours are in the South Kensington Museum, his portrait of John Wesley is in the National Portrait Gallery while several of his .S'hakespeare illustrations arc in The Victoria and Albert Museum. Jean Louis Richter (1766-1841) Ile learned his art tinder David-Etienne-Roux and Philippe- Samuel-Theodore Roux, becoming a most renowned enamel painter. IIis speciality was the painting of landscapes and particularly lake and marine scapes, often representing ships in a harbour or battles with lighting Men-of-War. He also painted portraits and hunting scenes. Although it may happen that his signature, in running hand-writing, appears on some of his work, more often than not his pantings are unsigned but can clearly be recognised as being in his hand from the style and quality of the work. He applied his art principally to watch cases and snuff boxes and these were largely destined for the Chinese, Turkish, British and Italian markets. Richter, like other great enamel painters of the time, often found inspiration for his work from paintings or engravings by the artists then in fashion, such as Van der Myn (1684-1741), Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785), John Francis Rigaud (1742-1820), John I-loffner (1748-1810) and Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815), or even from particularly Famous scenes such as the "Rape of Helen" from the engraving by Guido Reni (1575-1642), now in the Cabinet des Estampes, Paris.