Exceptional Collectors Timepieces, Ho...

Geneva, May 15, 2005

LOT 117

"Oiseaux Chanteur" Jacques Bruguier, Geneva, No. 278. Made circa 1840. Very fine 18K gold, enamel and rose cut diamond-set singing bird box, in a fitted box.

CHF 50,000 - 70,000

EUR 32,000 - 45,000 / USD 43,000 - 60,000

C. Two-part, rectangular with lobed corners, the lid chased with foliage over a translucent imperial blue enamelground, singing bird medallion similarly decorated and set with three large rose-cut diamonds, the front and sidepanels engraved with geometrical decoration, engine-turned base with elaborate floral engraving. Singing birdmovement: rectangular, 88 x 44 mm, three-quarter plate, turned pillars, fusee and chain, rectangular bellows, birdwith moving head, wings, beak and tail, nine cams controlling the piston and the bird movements, long durationof singing, precision cam-controlled lifting mechanism, pierced gold grill engraved with foliage.Scratch signed on the movement, punch numbered.Dim 96 x 53 x 31 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3 - 54
Movement: 3 *

Notes

Jacques Bruguier (1801-1873) He was the son-in-law of the celebrated singing bird box maker Charles Abraham Bruguier, having married the elder Bruguier's daughter Jacqueline on January 13, 1853. The same last name suggests that the two families were related, but whether or not this is true has not been established for the moment. Jacques Bruguier was born in Geneva in June 1801, to Jean-Abraham Bruguier and his wife Rose Lamon. The city having just been annexed by the new French Republic, this was French territory, and Jacques? father, who was also a clockmaker, soon took his family to the Ardèche region of France. Several years later Jacques returned to Geneva. In 1852 he was living at Grand Pré with Charles-Abraham Bruguier senior, who employed him as a mechanic, while Jacques' future wife Jacqueline pinned music box cylinders. One notes that when the two were married, the groom was already over fifty years old, and the bride almost forty ! They did, however, have two children, Jacques Alexandre and Abrahamine Charlotte Françoise. From 1853 to 1861, Jacques and Jacqueline Bruguier?s address was Place de la Madeleine 166. In 1867, he had moved to number 14, rue du Cendrier. Jacques Bruguier died on October 7, 1873. Literature: ?Flights of Fancy?, Sharon and Christian Bailly, Antiquorum Editions, 2001