Exceptional horologic works of art

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Oct 11, 2003

LOT 97

Ethiopian Caterpillar. Attributable to the workshop of Piguet et Capt, Geneva, circa 1805, probably retailed by Maillardet. Extremely fine and rare 18K gold and enamel, pearl- , diamond- , ruby- , emerald- , and turquoise-set automaton caterpillar, in fitted leather box.

CHF 120,000 - 150,000

EUR 78,000 - 98,000

Sold: CHF 119,000

C. In the form of a caterpillar, whose body is made up of 11 graduated segments, the top of each of translucent scarlet enamel over flinqué set with a different combination of pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and turquoises, each segment terminated by a row of split pearls, the underside in black champlevé enamel with a gold pattern, the head decorated with black champlevé enamel. M. Brass, shaped, with fixed barrel, the 5-wheel train terminating with 4-wing fly governor. A cam sitting on the extension of the second wheel moves two levers up and down, resulting in a very realistic crawling motion, small knurled steel wheels running via contrate wheel meshing with the second wheel pinion, make the caterpillar move forward.Dim: Length 70 mm, thickness: 15 mm in the middle.


LOADING IMAGES
Click to full view
Image
Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3 - 51
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: -

Notes

Only five of these mechanical caterpillars are known: 1. With pearls and turquoises, Sandoz Collection. 2. With pearls in two rows, formerly in the Iklé Collection (Saint-Gall). 3. Sandoz Collection, similar to this one, formerly in the Franck Collection (Paris). 4. With turquoises, now in the Patek Philippe Museum, sold by Antiquorum on Oct 19, 1997, lot 654. The present one.The crawling motion of the caterpillar is produced ingeniously, by a series of articulated and jointed rings; the front end raises itself slowly, and then the rest of the body follows. The very natural movement is set off by a little catch, hardly visible, in the middle of the body. Henri Maillardet, who exhibited a caterpillar in the early 19th century, called it the "Ethiopian caterpillar". The Sandoz caterpillar, probably the most famous one, was in the Franck Collection in the 1920s and was illustrated and described in 1928 in "Le Monde des Automates" by Alfred Chapuis and Edouard Gélis (p. 154). The authors called it a "remarkable piece of jewelry of magnificent colors and perfect movement".The present piece is strikingly similar to the one in the Sandoz Collection (formerly in the Franck Collection). The design is the same; the only difference is the order of the precious stones and their settings. Here, the stones are set in yellow rosettes; in the Sandoz caterpillar they are green.