Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Hong Kong, Apr 28, 2019

LOT 97

ATTRIBUTABLE TO KARL GRIESBAUM SINGING BIRD BOX; SILVER, GILDED SILVER AND ENAMEL

HKD 54,000 - 72,000

CHF 6,800 - 9,050 / USD 6,900 - 9,200

Silver (sterling) key-winding, horizontal-shaped, singing bird box Case painted on enamel on silver showing a shepherd and shepherdess near a lake.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense

Brand Unsigned

Year circa 1930

Calibre  rectangular (90 x 55 mm.) brass, with going barrel, bellows and cams; the revolving bird with moving wings, beak and tail, controlled by two cams mounted beneath the barrel wheel

Material silver, gilded silver and enamel

Caliber rectangular (90 x 55 mm.) brass, with going barrel, bellows and cams; the revolving bird with moving wings, beak and tail, controlled by two cams mounted beneath the barrel wheel

Dimensions 47 x 100 x 63 mm

Signature dial and movement

Notes

Griesbaum, Karl (1872-1941) The firm Griesbaum was founded in 1905 in Germany, in the Black Forest, in Triberg (Baden-Wurttemberg), by Karl Griesbaum (1872-1941). He is the son of Mathias Griesbaum, a clockmaker. He began working as a micro-mechanic in the basement of his home. He has five children who will work with him: Mathias (1902-1974), Amalia, Helena, Caroline and Karl Joseph (b.1916). Mathias studied clockmaking in Furtwangen, pursued commercial studies in Karlsruhe, as well as in Switzerland. The most typical items of the Griesbaum House are probably their snuff-boxes with a singing bird, particularly those made in a style reminiscent of the traditional German silversmiths of earlier centuries, but also their boxes with two singing birds and those serving as boxes for cigarettes.