762,500 CHF
Morand, Genève, made for the Chinese Market,circa 1780. Magnificent and certainly unique, 20K varicoloured gold musical, centre seconds coach-watch, two tunes carillon on four bells, with automaton scene. Double body, Louis XVI with glazed back, the bezels chased with palm leaf decoration over a matt ground. White enamel with Roman numerals and outer Arabic minute and seconds ring. Gold pierced “fleurs-de-lys” hands. Hinged gilt brass double train full plate, applied over the back plate the fine chased three-coloured gold automaton riverside scene with a fisherman on the left, a water mill on the right. Going train with fixed barrel and revolving arbor, verge escapement, plain brass thre-arm balance, flat balance spring, released by a button on the bezel, pinned-drum musical train with four bells and four hammers, driving the movement of the fisherman, the flowing river and the wheel of the milll, by means of cams and levers.Signed on the dial.Diam. 83 mm. Notes Previously in the Berry-Hill Collection, this watch was described and illustrated by Alfred Chapuis and Edmond Droz in Les Automates, Figures Artificielles d’Hommes et d’Animaux, p. 187, fig. 207.Very few watches with a carillon and an automaton scene, such as the example sold by Antiquorum on November 13, 1999,The Art of Horology in Geneva, lot 64, are known to have been made by Morand. But only two coach-watches of this type are known to exist: this example plays a Chinese tune, and was brought back from China
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2000-04-02
