Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Nov 16, 2008

LOT 239

Thirty-Six Tune Musical Box Nicole Frères, Geneve, No. 44480. Made circa 1870. Extremely fine and very rare, rosewood inlaid and ebonised musical box with table, playing thirty-six tunes on six interchangeable cylinders, each playing six tunes.

CHF 30,000 - 35,000

USD 28,000 - 32,000 / EUR 20,000 - 22,000

C. Rectangular, rosewood veneered and ebonised with inlaid crossbanded stringing, the front inlaid with a foliate scroll cartouche and the initials ?NF?, hinged lid inlaid with a view of Lake Geneva within a foliate cartouche and initials ?NF?, brass handles, lock and brass key, table en suite with fitted drawer for the other cylinders, turned ebonised legs with castors.M. Hinged glazed cover to view, brass bed, 10cm going barrel with crank lever winding, six 41cm interchangeable pinned brass cylinders playing six tunes each on a steel comb in two sections with 158 tuned vibrating teeth, two levers for releasing the cylinder, brass fly, levers for stop/start and tune selection. Case signed with inlaid initials ?NF?, movement signed and numbered, combs signed. Dim. Box: 89 x 31 x 23 cm. Table: 112 x 70 x 75 cm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good

Notes

Frères Nicole à Genève. Watchmakers and makers of musical pieces who later came to specialize in musical pieces and musical boxes. 1828-1844. They signed a petition for the construction of a new Observatory in Geneva in 1829. Their recorded addresses are: Etuves 130, rue du Cendrier, passage des Bergues (1831) and passage du Cendrier 118 bis (1844). See: ?Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois, Antiquorum Editions, 1998.