Exceptional horologic works of art

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Oct 11, 2003

LOT 122

The Barking Dog. Piguet & Meylan, Geneva, No. 28, made for Chinese market, circa 1815. Extremely rare and very fine 18K gold, quarter-repeating “barking dog” automaton watch.

CHF 60,000 - 80,000

EUR 39,000 - 52,000

Sold: CHF 119,000

C. Four-body, “Empire”, engine-turned back, reeded band, gilt hinged cuvette. D. Eccentric, set at the top of a translucent imperial blue enamel engine-turned plate, white enamel ring with Breguet numerals, outer minute divisions and center in champlevé enamel with a vase and sprig of lilies, gold sunrays to the top left. Gold “beetle and poker” hands. Lower part with applied varicolored gold and silver automaton scene of a dog barking at a swan which appears to be hissing back, the dog nodding its head with each movement of the bellows. M. 49 mm., gilt brass half-plate, free-standing barrel, cylinder escapement, steel escape wheel, plain three-arm brass balance, flat balance spring. The repeating barking mechanism with round bellows and whistle is activated by depressing the pendant.Punched with the maker's mark “P & M” on the movement and “PM” in a lozenge inside the cuvette, the movement scratched on the dial plate “fait par I. D. Piguet et P. Meylan à Genève”, the back panel stamped with casemaker's mark “FO” in lozenge.Diam. 54 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3 - 11
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 13 - 01

Notes

The watch repeats the hours and quarters with the sound of a barking dog; the rarest form of repeating. The scene is taken after Jean-Baptiste Oudry French, (1686-1755) “Swan Attacked by a Dog”, of which he painted a few copies in the 1740s. Of the approximately twenty known barking dog watches, this one appears to have the most elaborate dial.It is now known that Piguet & Meylan used at least two separate numbering series. The barking dog series numbers are lower than 300. The other types of watches bear numbers up to the 7000s; one watch is known in the 9000s. It is likely that the company began its production with the barking dog models, then proceeded to other ones, but continued the production of the barking dog watches with the first series of numbers.The inscription scratched on the dial plate: “fait par I. D. Piguet et P. Meylan à Genève,” is also present in the barking dog watches Nos. 19, 34, and 146.