Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Du Rhône, Oct 15, 2006

LOT 350

"The Landmarks of Paris" Eugène Bornand & Cie., Sainte Croix, No. 14081. Made circa 1850. Very fine and extremely rare, gilt brass, 8-day going, musical automaton mantel clock in the ?chinoiserie? style, with hour and half-hour striking, playing a selection of two tunes on the hour or at will, rosewood base with glass shade.

CHF 40,000 - 60,000

EUR 25,000 - 38,000 / USD 33,000 - 50,000

Sold: CHF 56,640

C. Gilt brass, matte and burnished, rectangular with anthemion and acanthus leaf cornice and base, foliate and stylized dragon mounts, foliate feet and bezel, the top covered with velvet and mounted with a gilt bronze table with velvet cover, to each side a gilt bronze figure of a Chinese gentleman and lady gesturing to a gilt brass rotunda on the table, an aperture revealing one of six rotating paper half-models of the famous buildings of Paris against a mirrored background creating the illusion of seeing the whole building. The buildings shown are: Les Invalides; The Pantheon; La Madeleine; The Louvre; Arc de L'Etoile (Triomphe); Notre-Dame. Rosewood and ebonised base with hinged door to access the musical control levers, glass shade. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track. Blued steel Breguet hands. Clock movement: circular, gilt brass, going barrels for the going and striking trains, anchor escapement, silk suspension, brass bob pendulum, outside countwheel striking on a bell. Musical movement: rectangular brass, large going barrel, pinned brass cylinder playing two tunes, single steel comb with 84 tuned teeth, music activated on the hour by a steel rod, the rotating scenes move one position at each play, tune selection / stop and start levers accessed through a door in the base. Musical movement signed Eug. Bornand & Cie, 6830. Dim. 75 x 44 x 25 cm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 2

Very good
Dial: 3-57-01

Good

Original later bezel

HANDS Original

Notes

This clock was recently fully overhauled. Bornand The Bornand family, originally from Sainte Croix, Switzerland, was particularly known for its mechanical musical movements. One of its members, A. Bornand, was also a finisher of complicated and high quality watches toward the end of the 19th century. He was a ?régleur? for the firm H. Capt. Eugène Bornand certainly another member of the Bornand dynasty, was recorded as working during the latter half of the 19th century. He is known, among other things, for enamel and gold pendant watches. Dictionnaire des horlogers genevois, by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, 1998.