Important Watches, Collectors’ Wristw...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Nov 14, 2004

LOT 275

The Theater Attributable to the Du Bois workshop, Locle, circa 1810. Extremely rare and fine 18K gold, double-face musical automaton watch.

CHF 60,000 - 80,000

EUR 40,000 - 50,000 / USD 50,000 - 65,000

Sold: CHF 90,850

C. Three-body, ?Empire?, glazed covers, fluted band with engraved laurel-leaf pattern. D. White enamel, Breguet Roman numerals,outer minute divisions, winding aperture between 8 and 9 o?clock, at 4 o?clock aperture for winding the music and automaton. AutomatonscenEexceptionally well executed, depicting a couple dancing on a stage with mirrored walls under a multicolored gold dome. Themusic is provided by a lady harpist sitting on the right, while a gentleman to the left, with a musical score, conducts. M. 52 mm, gilt fullplate, cylindrical pillars, going barrel, cylinder escapement with brass escape wheel, three-arm plain brass balance, flat balance spring,pinned cylinder musical movement with six sections of two vibrating teeth each, the theater and the musicians driven from cams andlevers of the musical train.Diam. 61 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 24 - 01

Notes

The ?Theater? is one of the rarest of automaton watches. Only ten are known: 1One formerly in the Gélis Collection 2One in the Sandoz Collection, formerly in the Loup Collection 3One formerly in the Salomons Collection 4One signed Louis Duchêne et Fils, sold at Antiquorum, April 21, 1996, lot No. 258. 5One featured in Antiquorum?s auction ?The Art of Horology in Geneva?, November 13-14, 1999, lot No. 74. 6One by Du Bois et Fils, in a private German collection. 7One sold by Antiquorum, April 13, 2002, lot 65. 8One sold by Antiquorum on Nov 16, 2003, lot 47. 9One in a private American collection. 10The present watch. All of the above-listed watches, with the exception of the first and the last, utilize similar ebauches, and feature a similar manner of fixing the movement to the case, which strongly suggests they were made by the same maker. Only three of them are signed, one by Duchêne et Fils of Geneva, the other by Du Bois et Fils of Le Locle,and this one by Capt. Four of them (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 7) were made for the Chinese market, which would explain why they are not signed. This piece represents one of the earliest applications of the invention of Antoine Favre, presented in 1796 to the Geneva Société des Arts, for a ?carillon without bells playing two tunes and imitating the sound of the Mandolin, enclosed within a snuffbox of ordinary size?, in which vibrating tuned blades replaced the much more bulky and fragile carillon bells. This invention was to revolutionize musical horology and the art of making objets de vertu in Geneva. It appears, however, that Favre only re-invented vibrating blades, which were presented in 1769 by Michel Joseph Ransonnet of Nancy to the French Academy of Sciences. Their ?re-invention? by Favre may have saved the Geneva Fabrique from a period of stagnation due to the French occupation, high taxes, and the English embargo. The invention did not make Favre wealthy. By 1799 he was losing his eyesight, and asked the Société des Arts to loan him 36 Louis. Sad as it was from a human point of view, Favre?s colleagues prospered greatly from his invention. The first to grasp the potential of the new idea were Isaac Daniel Piguet, Henry-Daniel Capt and Philippe-Samuel Meylan. Their early pieces, like the present one, are extremely rare. Most of the surviving pieces are in museums.