Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 138

?The Dutch Kitchen? Attributed to Pierre Simon Gounouilhou, No. 28095, Geneva. Made circa 1815. Very fine and very rare, 18K gold and enamel watch with an automaton scene with six actions.

CHF 20,000 - 30,000

EUR 13,000 - 20,000 / USD 16,000 - 25,000

Sold: CHF 65,550

C. Double-body, "Directoire", polished with glazed back. D. White enamel with Arabic numerals, outer minute track and Arabic quarterhour numerals. Blued steel "ogival" hands. Magnificent varicolored gold automaton scene applied over a finely painted ground depicting a kitchen: a lady at the spinning-wheel sitting by a fire over which two chickens are being roasted, a small child opposite her, above, a dog running in a rotating cage turns the spit, at the right water runs from a fountain, below a dog plays with a cat by a basket of vegetables. M. 50 mm. (22 1/4???), gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance with flat balance spring, regulation lever in the dial plate. Automaton driven by an independent movement with going barrel and five-wheel train, eccentrically mounted and adjustable pinion as the governor, driving the automata by means of cams and levers. Numbered on the pendant. Diam. 58 mm.


LOADING IMAGES
Click to full view
Image
Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3-6-11

Good

Slightly oxidized

Slightly worn
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 25-02

Chipped

HANDS Service hands

Notes

"The Kitchen" This form of automaton watch appears to have been produced only by Gounouilhou and Dubois & Fils. Those made by Gounouilhou employ fusee and chain, rarely found in Swiss watches, whereas Dubois used a going barrel, and his kitchen was run from the repeating mechanism. Fewer than a dozen "Kitchen" automata are known: 1. Gounouilhou, illustrated in "Histoire et Technique de La Montre Suisse", by E. Jaquet and A. Chapuis, 1945, pl. 102; 2. Unsigned and unattributed in "Le Monde des Automates", A. Chapuis and E. Gelis, Paris, 1928, p. 87; 3. Signed Breguet, probably by Gounouilhou, with fusee and chain, sold by Antiquorum in Geneva on April 13, 1997, lot No. 595; 4. Dubois & Fils, going barrel, automaton driven from the repeating train, sold by Antiquorum in Hong Kong on June 10, 1997, lot 411; 5. Unsigned, in later case, Sotheby?s New York, Oct 1993, lot No. 185; 6. Unsigned, with independent automaton, Christie?s Geneva, May 1993, lot No. 123; 7. 3 in a private collection; 8. Sold by Antiquorum, Geneva, October 19, 2002, Lot 130; 9. The present watch. Pierre Simon Gounouilhou (1779-1847) was born in 1779, settled in Geneva (Quai Neuf en l?Isle, No. 241) in 1799. An imaginative maker of great repute, he produced automata and musical objects and watches, ring watches with virgule escapement and quarter-repeating, watches with cases using unusual decorative techniques such as granulation. He left very interesting shop notes with an abundance of information about the habits and customs of early 19th century Geneva watchmakers. See: Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois", by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, Geneva, 1998.