Important Watches, Collector's Wristw...

The Ritz-carlton Hotel, Hong-kong, Jun 08, 2002

LOT 396

Isaac Daniel Piguet, Geneve, circa 1800.Very fine, rare and important 18K gold and enamel pearl-set keyless musical automaton ring in original morocco fitted box.

HKD 140,000 - 170,000

EUR 20,000 - 25,000 / USD 18,000 - 22,000

Sold: HKD 515,000

C. Rectangular top with canted corners, half pearl-set bezel, lightly engraved flat band and back with a slot for winding lever, fluted shank extending at the top.The top of the ring rectangular with canted corners, three-colored gold animated scene depicting a lady playing a harp, both hands moving on both sides of the strings, applied on finely painted and overglazed enamel panel with a garden and classical ruins in the background. M. Rectangular with canted corners, 27.4 x 14.4 mm., brass ful plate, pinned drum with five tuned teeth, rack winding, six-wheel train, last pinion in eccentric bushing for tempo control, automaton driven from a spring-loaded lever acting on pentagonal cam fixed to the first wheel arbor (after the pinned barrel).Signed on the movement in a manner typical of I .D. Piguet.Dim. Top: 34 x 22 mm., height with the shank 27 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3

Good
Dial: -

Notes

This ring is a very early example of the use of the invention of a "carillon without hammers or bells", presented by Antoine Favre (1734-1820) to the Geneva Société des Arts on February 15, 1796. This invention, which produced mechanical music without bells or gongs, by means of tuned steel blades, was to revolutionize musical horology and the making of objects of vertu in Geneva. The miniaturization achieved due to Favre's invention was very important, for at the time the city was under an embrgo of English products, which included the steel and bronze used for manufacturing bells. Favre's idea may have allowed Geneva's Fabrique to overcome the period of stagnation due to the French occupation, high taxes and the English embargo.Favre's invention did not make him wealthy. In 1799, he asked the Société to loan him 36 Louis, and received the following response: "The Société is sorry to learn of Citizen Favre's situation, but its regulations forbid it from intervening... particularly at the present time.". Sad as it is from a human point of view, Favre's colleagues prospered greatly from his invention. The first to grasp its potential were Jean-Frédéric Leschot, Isaac Daniel Piguet, Henry-Daniel Capt and Philippe-Samuel Melan. Their early pieces, like this one, are extremely rare.Due to the difficult political and economic situation, the Fabrique came to a near standstill from 1798 to 1800. The first musical movements with tuned teeth were therefore produced no earlier than 1800 or 1801. Almost all of the few surviving pieces are in museums today. The Swiss Landesmuseum in Seewen has an almost identical ring (inv. LM 75142), which is dated circa 1803 in their catalogue. Since Piguet became associated with Henry Capt in 1802 (prior to that working first for Leschot, and tenalone) this ring, which is signed only "Piguet", must date frombefore 1802.