Miniature cages are among the most technically sophistcated and spectacular type of singing bird pieces. Those with multiple birds are exceedingly rare among them. To date, very few are known, whether in gold and enamel or in chased and gilt bronze: one is in the Patek Philippe Museum; another, in the Musée d?Horlogerie de Genève, was sold by Antiquorum on October 11, 2003, lot 88; three others are in a private collection. It is remarkable to see how in such a small space, the makers were able to transfer the movements to all the wings, beaks, and tails, and make both birds turn. The movements are ingeniously transferred via hollow columns; one column for turning the body, the other for flapping the wings and tail and opening the beak ? two columns for each bird. This is a museum piece of the high mechanical, historical, and artistic importance. Charles Abraham Bruguier Born in Geneva in 1788, he was the son of a clockmaker and became a clockmaker himself. In October 1813, he married Louise-Pernette Noiret, and in June 1814, their daughter Jacqueline was born. A year later, in June 1815, Charles-Abraham Bruguier took his family to London, where they lived several years, first in Great Marlborough Street, then in Greek Street. There, other children were born: Charles-Abraham in 1818, and Louise in 1821. The Bruguier family returned to Switzerland around 1823. Judith, their fourth child, was born in Geneva in 1825. It is apparently only after the return to Geneva, where the Bruguier family settled in the rue de Coutance 87, that Charles-Abraham first began making singing birds, which dates the first Bruguier singing bird pieces after 1823. Between 1833 and 1837, Bruguier traveled again, this time to the town of Sainte-Suzanne near Montbéliard in France, to work in the Paur music-box factory (which afterwards became the L?Epée factory). This explains the existence of music boxes with the Bruguier signature. It would seem that Charles-Abraham junior, perhaps then already serving his apprenticeship, did not accompany his family, for he is not mentioned in the passport application, which says that Charles-Abraham left, for the "destination Montbéliard, with his wife and three daughters". In 1837, the Bruguier family returned once again to Geneva, living first in the rue du Cendrier 121 bis and moving the following year to rue Coutance 75. After 1843, Bruguier senior, having acquired property in Grand-Pré (north of Geneva), transferred his workshop there. The last trace we have of Bruguier senior is an application for a passport made in December 1861, for a trip he planned to Paris. Six months later, in June 1862, he died at 74 years of age. The elder Bruguier is known mainly for his bird boxes, but he made other kinds of pieces as well, even quite unusual ones: "a clock surmounted by a vase, in the center of which a rose opens up on the hour. Out of this rose comes a hummingbird which sings and flies back to where it came from, whereupon the rose closes up again." Or, "a flute player leaning against a tree. He plays, every movement of his fingers corresponding to a note. A small bird appears and sings, and the man puts down his flute and turns his head to listen. A cat suddenly appears and pounces on the bird just as it finishes its song, but the bird disappears and the man begins playing again." "Flights of Fancy", by Sharon and Christian Bailly, Antiquorum Editions, 2001.