2,760 CHF
Henry Capt, Genève, No. 364, circa 1815.Very fine and rare, 18K gold, quarter repeating musical watch with an automaton scene and subsidiary automaton Jacks. Double body, Empire, polished with ribbed band. Hinged gilt brass cuvette. Small eccentric gold engine-turned with Roman numerals on a polished chapter ring. Blued steel "spade" hands. The dial plate with automaton cherub Jacks on each side of the dial, repeating hours and quarters on two bells, the foreground applied with a varicoloured gold chased automaton scene driven by the musical train, featuring a seated lady playing the harp while her music teacher beats time. Gilt brass full pate double train movement with cylindrical pillars, fusee with chain, cylinder escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance spring, small gilt brass English type cock with diamond end-stone, the foot countersunk on an applied gilt brass plate engraved with scrolls of foliage. Repeating on gongs by depressing the pendant. Musical train with pin-barrel and six stacked steel teeth.Signed on the gilt brass dust rim.Diam. 60 mm. Notes A similar movement is described and illustrated in Ree's Cyclopaedia, p. 280, pl. XLIII.Henry-Daniel CaptBorn in Chenit in 1773, married Henriette Piguet. He was specialised in the production of complicated watches, musical watches and automaton watches. Among the first in Geneva to use musical mechanism with pinned cylinder and tuned teeth comb, he was famous for his snuffboxes with music and
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
1999-11-13
