Important Watches, Collectors’ Wristw...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Nov 14, 2004

LOT 414

Charles Bruguier, No. 21, Geneva, circa 1840. Very fine 18K gold and enamel singing bird box in a later fitted box.

CHF 60,000 - 80,000

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

C. Two-part, rectangular with lobed corners, the lid chased with foliage over a translucent imperial blue enamel ground, the front and side panels engraved with geometrical decoration, the hinged back panel for the key compartment, engine-turned base with elaborate floral engraving. Singing bird medallion painted with a fine composition of summer flowers, the reverse en suite. Singing bird movement: rectangular, 85 x 42 mm, full plate, turned pillars, stamped, fusee and chain, rectangular bellows, bird with moving head, wings, beak and tail, eight cams controlling the piston and the bird movements, long duration of singing, precision cam-controlled lifting mechanism, gold grill engraved with a floral pattern.Signed on the watch cover.Dim. 104 x 66 x 35 mm.Numbered and punched with the three tulip trademark on both sides of the movement.Dim. 91 x 55 x 30 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: -

Notes

Charles Abraham Bruguier 1788-1862 Born in Geneva in 1788, he was the son of a clockmaker and became a clockmaker himself. A year later, in June 1815, Charles-Abraham Bruguier took his family to London, where they lived several years. The Bruguier family returned to Switzerland around 1823. 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. He died in June 1862. Charles Abraham Bruguier the younger 1818-1891 the son of Charles-Abraham Bruguier senior, Charles Abraham Bruguier the younger was born in London, where his father was working at the time. He is mentioned in the 1843 Geneva census as working in the Terreaux de Chantepoulet street, later moving to the rue Rousseau, to the rue Sismondi and then to the rue des Pâquis, 5. Bruguier the younger manufactured singing bird boxes largely along the lines of his father, as did his brother-in-law, Jacques Bruguier, and the latter's son, Jacques-Alexander.