Important Collector's, Watches, Wrist...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Oct 15, 2000

LOT 427

The Spring.Attributed to Piguet et Meylan à Genève, made for the Chinese market, circa 1820.Magnificent and rare 18K gold and enameled, quarter repeating musical triple-train automaton watch with two musicians, set with half-pearls and turquoises.

CHF 280,000 - 360,000

USD 160,000 - 200,000

Sold: CHF 905,500

C. Four-body, 'Empire', the back with a very fine enamel portrait of a young lady, representing the Spring, depicted with spring flowers within a round frame of alternating segments with graduating half-pearls and translucent dark blue enamel over engine-turning, the bezels entirely set with half-pearls, the band set with half-pearls alternating with a cluster of four turquoises. Pendant and bow set with half-pearls, azure enamel underneath the bow. D. Eccentric, off-white enamel over gold, Romanumerals, outer minute ring within an enamel countryside scene showing a castle with the sea in the background and a classical urn in a corner of the castle wall. Multicolored gold figures of a boy playing a triangle and a girl playing the hurdy-gurdy. The players? arms are pivoted and are driven by the musical movement, giving the illusion that the music comes from the small triangle and the hurdy-gurdy. M. 20???, fire-gilded, cylinder escapement, gold balance, blued-steel flat balance spring,all three trains run from motor barrels, the music disc with pins on both sides working on 22 vibrating blades, the automaton is driven by the musical movement and is controled by a cam mounted in the center of the music disk, all-or-nothing repeating train, the seconds hand is mounted directly on the 4th wheel, the music plays every hour on the hour or on demand, repeating on gongs when the pendant is pressed.Diam. 55 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 4*

Fair

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

Notes

The present lot was exhibited at the exhibition 'Magic, Music and Motion, of rare 18th and 19th Century Watches, Boxes and Automata', as exhibit No. 11 and is illustrated in the catalogue on page 21.Although not signed, the workmanship, the details and the ebauche are so typical of Piguet & Meylan that there is no doubt that the watch comes from their workshop. The company made a few watches like this one, 'avec deux musiciens', to borrow a term used by Alfred Chapuis. One of them is illustrated in 'Le monde des automates' by Alfred Chapuis and Edouard Gélis. On page 40 is a view of the underside of the movement, clearly the same as the present lot. The dial and the hands are also practicaly identical to those of this lot.On antique monuments that have survived, the Four Seasons are frequently represented by winged figures. On decorative objects, or of domestic use, the Four Seasons are often represented by a woman with symbols identifying each season. The Four Seasons, as subject-matter, were much in vogue during Roman times and many examples can be found in museums such as in the "Museo Pompeiano", Naples, "Musei del Vaticano", Rome, and "Le Louvre", Paris. In the Neo-Classical period, at the beginning of the 1th century, well illustrated in the decoration of the present watch, these subject-matters of typically Mediterranean culture were dear to artists who decorated watch cases, snuff boxes and a variety of precious objects then in fashion. Each season is associated with certain symbols such as Spring with spring flowers, Summer with fruit and wheat, Autumn with grapes and Winter with an urn of fire. The present lot, depicting the Spring season, was certainly part of a set of four watches, made forhe Chinese market in four variants, for each of the four seasons, each with a bust-length portrait of a lady adorned with the symbols of the season that she is representing.