Only Online Auction
Geneva, Dec 08, 2022
LOT 528
Attributable to Karl Griesbaum
Singing-bird box; silver
CHF 3,000 - 6,000
EUR 3,100 - 6,100 / USD 3,200 - 6,400 / HKD 24,900 - 49,700
Sold: CHF 3,750
Silver (0.925), key-winding, horizontal oval-shaped, singing-bird box.
Oval box made of embossed metal panels, on all sides and on the horizontal oval cover, showing cherubs, attributes of Music and Love, and, around the edge, numerous cherubs’ heads.
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: AA |
Very good |
Case: 3 |
Good |
Movement: 3* |
Good Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense |
Brand Karl Griesbaum, Triberg (Black Forest)
Year circa 1920-1940
Movement No. unnumbered
Case No. unnumbered
Material silver (0.925)
Caliber rectangular (95 x 60 mm.) brass, going barrel, bellows and cams; the revolving bird with moving wings, beak and tail, controlled by two cams mounted beneath the barrel wheel
Dimensions 60 x 120 x 85 mm. (approx.)
Accessories silvered metal winding-key (in the shape of a bird)
Notes
Griesbaum, Karl (1872-1941)
The firm Griesbaum was founded in 1905 in Germany, in the Black Forest, in Triberg (Baden-Wurttemberg), by Karl Griesbaum (1872-1941). He is the son of Mathias Griesbaum, a clockmaker. He began working as a micro-mechanic in the basement of his home. He has five children who will work with him: Mathias (1902-1974), Amalia, Helena, Caroline and Karl Joseph (b.1916). Mathias studied clockmaking in Fürtwangen, pursued commercial studies in Karlsruhe, as well as in Switzerland. The most typical items of the Griesbaum House are probably their snuff-boxes with a singing bird, particularly those made in a style reminiscent of the traditional German silversmiths of earlier centuries, but also their boxes with two singing birds and those serving as boxes for cigarettes.