Important Collectors Wristwatches, P...
Geneva, Hotel Du Rhone, Apr 02, 2006
LOT 402
?La leçon de chant? Frères Rochat, Geneva, No. 120, made for the Chinese market, circa 1815. Exceptional and unique large rectangular 18K gold and enamel pearl- and diamond-set large singing bird box featuring two birds with rare forward movement of the head and body.
CHF 800,000 - 1,200,000
108 500,000 - 750,000
Sold: CHF 1,018,500
C. Four-body, the center of the front lid with aperture for large very finely painted on enamel medallion with flowers and fruits, which when lifted reveals two birds rising over a realistically painted enamel nest with straw and flowers and champlevé enamel border. Between them is a vase with diamond-set flowers, at which the birds appear to peck. The birds rotate, turn their heads, move their heads back and forth, lean forward, flap their wings and and tails and open their beaks to sing, one after the other. The top panel decorated with gold scrolling and champlevé foliate and floral patterns against pink champlevé enamel, outer edges and aperture set with half pearls, one side hinged revealing the key compartment. Side panels and the base decorated with translucent green enamel over double pattern engine-turning with frames of white and pink champlevé enamel and blue enamel flowers. M. Rectangular, 100 x 65 mm. brass, large going barrel, twelve cams and a whistle with sliding piston for the song?s modulation. The cams rotate four times per song and lift one step every rotation, allowing a long duration of singing. Addfitional set of four cams mounted on the extension of the third wheel for controlling the bird movement. Cam and fusee-like chain controlling the raising of the medallion and the birds. Punched with the maker?s mark FR and serial number on the inside of the front plate. Diam. 105 x 72 x 40 mm.
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: |
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Case: 3-21 |
Good Period |
Movement: 3 |
Good |
Notes
Berry-Hill Collection; John Asprey Collection. The present bird box was sold by Antiquorum Geneva in October 2002, lot 56. This is the famous, and indeed the only known double singing bird box from the early nineteenth century. It is described in ?Les Automates?, by Chapuis et Droz, Neuchâtel, 1949, p. 112 and 203, as well as in ?Flights of Fancy ? Mechanical Singing Birds? by Sharon & Christian Bailly, Antiquorum Editions, 2001, p. 227. Although boxes with more than one bird were made later in the nineteenth century, this is the only example from this early date. The birds are large, and the box itself is larger than usual to accomodate the second bird as well as the additional cams and levers necessary for the birds? movements. The realistically enameled nest is most unusual. The movement employs a large bellows allowing for a superior sound. The forward movement of the birds? heads, not known to exist in any other bird box, is undoubtedly that mentioned by Jean-Frédéric Leschot, assistant and later associate of the Jaquet Droz, in a letter dated 1792, describing a large cage: ?the bird?with movements of the beak, the jabot, the wings and the tail, all so naturally that it appears to be alive.? The movement, of great technical subtlety, is achieved by means of a cut-out portion of the bird?s neck in the form of jabot masked by the feathers, which slides into the lower body shell. It is a sign of the extremely high quality of the box, and of the continuity of certain fabrication techniques from the celebrated Jaquet Droz to Rochat, who worked for them in the late 18th century.
FR (Frères Rochat)
These three brothers from Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux were the sons of David Rochat (1746-1812), who had been received master in 1766 and who made a specialty of singing birds. They were:
François Elisée Rochat, (1771-1836).
Frédéric Rochat, (1774-1848).
Samuel Henri Rochat, (1777-1854).
David Rochat formed an association with these three sons around 1800.
At the end of the 18th and in the early years of the 19th century David Rochat and sons had furnished bird ebauches to Jaquet Droz, and continued to do so when Jean-Frédéric Leschot took over the Jaquet Droz firm following Henry-Louis Jaquet Droz? death in 1792. In this they essentially followed the specifications given them by Jacob Frisard, the singing bird specialist of Jaquet Droz and Leschot. When Frisard, seeking to develop his own business, became less available after 1800, Leschot sought to replace him with the Rochats, but this collaboration was short-lived. After the death of their father in 1812, the three Rochat brothers moved to Geneva and went into business on their own account. They worked there, in the Terreaux de Chantepoulet, until about 1820, at which point Frederic and Samuel moved to the rue de Coutance 76, where they were later aided in their singing bird manufacture by Frederic?s sons Antoine-Frédéric Auguste (b. 1799) and Charles-Louis François (b. 1795) François, who continued in the Terreaux de Chantepoulet, was soon aided in his manufacture of singing bird pieces by his son Ami-Napoleon François (1807-1875, known as Ami). This lot was previuosly sold by Antiquorum in October 2002, lot 46 and is illustrated in ?Flights of Fancy?, by Sharon and Christian Bailly; p. 227.