Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Du Rhône, Nov 12, 2006

LOT 379

?Musical Snuff-Box - Concealed Erotic Automaton? Snuffbox by John Linnit & William Atkinson, with London hallmarks for 1812-1813, musical movement with erotic automaton (signed Alibert, No. 1134) and en suite erotic enamel panel added by John Asken, Dublin, in 1848. Very fine and extremely rare, silver-gilt musical table snuff-box playing two tunes with two concealed erotic scenes; one painted on enamel in the lid and a second concealed automaton in the base.

C. Three-body, rectangular, the hinged lid with concealed compartment containing a finely painted on enamel erotic scene of young lovers in a garden with a dolphin fountain and a hound in the foreground, revealed by sliding the top panel cast and chased in high relief with a scene depicting ?Alexander destroying the Persian cavalry?, the sides cast and chased with two borders of fruiting vines, an engine turned band between, the base containing the musical movement and a further sliding panel opening to reveal a fine gold and silver erotic automaton of a young couple in a garden clearing with a polished blued steel background, the automaton activated when the music plays. Musical movement. 83 x 52 mm., brass bed, pinned brass cylinder, steel comb with 67 tuned steel teeth, brass fly governor, stop/start lever activated by an engine-turned disc in the band. Case punched with the maker?s mark of John Linnit & William Atkinson, the sliding base and top panels scratched ?Asken, Dublin, 1848?, musical movement signed Alibert. Dim. 93 x 65 x 42 mm.