Important collector's watches, wristw...

Hotel Richemond, Geneva, Apr 13, 2002

LOT 518

Frères Rochat, cased by Bruguier, Geneva, circa 1850. Very fine and rare, gilt silver and enamel top-winding singing bird box.

C. Three-body, rectangular with rounded corners and engine-turned florally engraved curved sides, the top has each corner painted on enamel with flower bouquets of joined by champlevé blue and white enamel, white champlevé enamel around the aperture for the bird finished with raised chased frame, the oval bird cover painted on enamel with a bouquet of flowers on an azure ground, bottom engine-turned and engraved florally with mirror polished inside, slide in the front to activate the raising of the bird, which rotates, turns its head, opens its beak, flaps its wings and moves its tail, gold engraved grill. Singing bird movement: 66 x 48 mm., rectangular brass, fusee and chain, eight 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. Cam-controlled raising of the bird medallion and the bird, with five-wheel train finished by a pinion in eccentric bushing to regulate the speed of the opening and closing. The complicated mechanism allows for precision control of the raising of the bird and medallion, and its speed. Punched ?FR? in an oval on the back of the bird mechanism. Dim. 80 x 54 mm.