Isâac Daniel Piguet

Isâac Daniel Piguet, Geneva, circa 1800. Very fine and rare lady's musical pendant with automaton in 18K gold and enamel set with split-pearls. Rectangular with canted corners, 27 x 14 mm, brass full plate, cylindrical pillars, pinned barrel musical movement, fivetuned teeth stuck 2-2-1, activated by a rack lever with inclined teeth acting directly on the barrel ratchet wheel, pinion for a governor set in adjustable eccentric bushing with small brass weight. Signed "Piguet" under the dial in typical for Piguet style. Dim. 37 x 22 mm Notes One of those small objects of vertu for which Isaac Daniel Piguet and later Piguet & Capt. became famous. At the beginning of the 19th century he was the major maker of small musical objects. In fact, since they were new and most of them were made by Piguet, Genevians thought that he was also an inventor of them. They were not the only ones that were mistaken.All sorts of horological objects including fantasy objects were subject to miniaturization, among them musical watches and boxes. Prior to 1770 they required bulky bells, which seriously limited miniaturization. In 1769 Michel Joseph Ransonnet of Nancy presented the French Academy of Sciences with a new invention for mechanical music. Instead of bells he used vibrating blades. He did not make many watches, or at least not many have survived. We know of only one, now in the Patek Philippe Museum,(formerly in the Time Museum). The system was revolutionary, utilizing small blades w