39,100 CHF
Geneva, probably by Piguet & Capt, circa 1805. Very fine and rare, large, 18K gold and enamel, pearl-set pendant designed as a shield escutcheon with automata. Two-body, engraved band partly covered in red translucent enamel with small blue enamel frieze in the center,half-pearl set bezels, loose bow. Painted enamel country scene with a mill, superimposed multicolored gold and silver low relief with an automated scene of a girl feeding a sheep, the girl’s arm, with a sheaf of wheat, moving up and down, the sheep’s head nodding, another sheep nodding its head as it grazes, a dog lowering its head towards a running stream, and a watermill, the glazed back engraved with a boy jumping into a fountain in a garden. Shaped, 30x26 mm. brass, 8-wheel train withoing barrel, the governing pinion with adjustable bushing to control the automaton’s speed, a small lever at the bottom to start and stop the automaton.Diam. 42x38 mm. Notes The present lot is an extremely rare example. Its dimensions are much larger than those of the few other that exist. Such pendants with automata were designed as shield escutcheons or made as rings of rectangular shape with cut corners.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2000-10-15
