Exceptional horologic works of art

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Oct 11, 2003

LOT 117

The Dutch Kitchen. Painting on enamel attributed to Jean-Louis Richter, movement attributed to Pierre Simon Gounouilhou, Geneva, circa 1810. Exceptional and very rare 18K gold and enamel, pearl-set double-face watch with an automaton scene with eight animations.

CHF 60,000 - 80,000

EUR 39,000 - 52,000

Sold: CHF 157,500

C. Double-body, “Empire”, back very finely painted on enamel with a harbor scene in the manner of Joseph Vernet; three sailing ships, men fishing from a boat with a net, another one fishing with a fishing rod from the shore, a castle at the shore, mountains in the background, champlevé enamel border, split pearl-set bezel. D. White enamel with Breguet numerals, outer minute track. Blued steel “ogival” hands. Automaton: Magnificent varicolored gold automaton scene applied over a painted enamel ground depicting an animated lady by a kitchen stove maintaining an animated fire upon which a chicken is being roasted, a small child sitting opposite, above, a barking dog running in a rotating cage turns the spit, at the right water is running from a fountain, below a dog is playing with a cat. M. 51 mm, gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance with flat balance spring, automaton driven by an independent movement from a fxed barrel and five-wheel train, eccentrically mounted and adjustable pinion as the governor, driving the automata by means of cams and levers.Punched twice with the serial number on the movement.Diam. 60 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3 -47

Period crown
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 01

Notes

"The Kitchen" is one of the most successful automata produced in Geneva in the early 19th century. Only a few are known. The present has perhaps the most spectacular case of all. It appears that they were produced only by Gounouilhou and Dubois & Fils. However, those made by Gounouilhou employ fusee and chain, rarely found in Swiss watches, while Dubois used a going barrel, and his kitchen was run from the repeating mechanism.In the present watch by Gounouilhou the automaton mechanism controls:1. The fire.2. The lady's hand.3. The lady's foot.3. The spit's rotation.4. The delicate, fusee-type chain driving the wheel.5. The fountain.6. The dog's running.7. The wheel turning.8. The dog's barking.There are fewer than a dozen "Kitchen" automata known. Among them:1. Gounouilhou, illustrated in "Histoire et Technique de La Montre Suisse", by E. Jaquet and A. Chapuis, 1945, pl. 102; 2. Unsigned and unattributed in "Le Monde des Automates", A. Chapuis and E. Gelis, Paris, 1928, p. 87; 3. Signed Breguet, probably by Gounouilhou, with fusee and chain, sold by Antiquorum in Geneva on April 13, 1997, lot o. 595; 4. Dubois & Fils, going barrel, automaton driven from the repeating train, sold by Antiquorum in Hong Kong on June 10, 1997, lot 411; 5. Unsigned, in a later case, Sotheby's New York, Oct 1993, lot No. 185; 6. Unsigned, with independent automaton, Christie's Geneva, May 1993, lot No. 123; 7. 3 in a private collection; 8. October 20, 2002, lot 130; 9. The present one. Pierre Simon Gounouilhou (1779 - 1847)Settled in Geneva (Quai Neuf en l'Isle, No. 241) in 1799. A maker of great repute, individuality and imagination, he is known as a maker of automaton and musical objects and watches, including the “kitchen”, ring watches with virgule escapement and quarter-repeating, and watches with unusual cases. Gounouilhou was one of the few ingenious watchmakers who helped make Geneva the undisputed center of musical automata watches in the early 19th century. For a biography of Richter, see lot 78.