The WatermillUnsigned

The WatermillUnsigned, English, circa 1785. Very fine and rare gilt metal double-face, two-train, hour striking and repeating musical automaton coach watch, playing two tunes, with centre-seconds, made for the Chinese market. 75 mm o, gilt brass full plate with column pillars, two-train, reversed power fusee and chain, cylinder escapement, plain steel three-arm balance, brass escape wheel, atypical cock pierced and engraved with foliage, visible through an aperture in the dial, and semi-circular regulator scale at the botom.Musical movement: Reversed power fusee and chain, five-wheel train, pinned cylinder playing two tunes on five bells with five hammers. The music and the automaton activated by pressing the button in the pendant.Diam. 95 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, page 256-257. Notes It is unusual to find a fusee-driven musical mechanism in such a watch.Huaud Frères, Jean Pierre et AmiThe best known and most prolific enamel painters of their day, they came from a family of goldsmiths in Châtellerault, France. Pierre Huaut I (1612 -1682) finished his apprenticeship as a goldsmith, and possibly as an enamel painter, in 1630. His three sons became enamel painters also. Pierre II (1647 - c.1698) was apprenticed to his father. In 1685/6 he went to Berlin, probably along with his younger brothers, but unlike his brothers, after a brief return home, he went back to Berlin in 1689. I1691 he was appointed painter to the Brandenburg Elector Frederick III, for whom he wo