89,850 CHF
Attributable to John Rich, Swiss, made for the Chinese Market, circa 1790. The enamel attributable to Jean-Louis Richter.Magnificent 18K gold and enamel, musical snuffbox accompanied by a gold and enamel matching key, ina silk lined Chinese box. Three body, the lid with an enamel painting depicting a riverside landscape, a young couple and cows on the foreground, borders with black and white champlevé decoration, the band with blue flinqué enamel panels with white champlevé enamelled line borders intersected with pierced and engraved sectors decorated with caduceus and laurel branches. Hinged blue flinqué bottom panel. Carillon gilt brass, shaped, fully engraved and skeltonized, fusee with chain, pin-drum with six hammer playing osix bells.Dim. 89 x 60 x 30 mm. Notes This snuffbox was illustrated by Osvaldo Patrizzi and Fabienne-Xavière Sturm in Montres de Fantaisie 1790-1850, Genève, 1979, fig. 54.Similar boxes are illustrated by Alfred Chapuis: History of the Musical Boxes, pp. 140 and 141, fig. 125 to 128.When not signed such carillon movements are usually attributed to the workshop of Jaquet-Droz; however, the existance of a gold and enamel snuffbox, fitted with a very similar movement signed made by John Rich, sold by Antiquorum in Geneva on October 22, 1995, lot 800, enables one to think that this London maker, who also worked in Geneva, actually made such carillon movements for Jaquet-Droz. Movements of this type with six hammers and six bells are extremely rare,
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2000-04-02
