362,500 CHF
MAGNIFICENT GOLD & ENAMEL SINGING BIRD SNUFF BOX WITH CONCEALED WATCH Attributed to Freres Rochat, Geneva. Made for the Chinese market, circa 1815. Magnificent and extremely rare, 18K gold and pearl-set, combined singing bird box with snuff box, watch and twin painted on enamel scenes. Four-body, rectangular with curved corners, mastermarks HN in a lozenge and J3C in an oval, the sides and base with engine-turned reserves with repeated leaf pattern, the corners engraved with a wreath, central hinge with opposing twin covers engine-turned to match the base within an engraved foliate border, the lid on the right opening for the snuff compartment, the watch within the lid concealed by a sprung and hinged cover decorated with a fi nely painted on enamel scene of a seated young lady and child in a classical landscape with fl owers and a quiver, pearl-set border, the lid on the right opening to reveal a foliate engraved gold plate with winding aperture for the singing bird, the bird cover decorated with a fi nely painted on enamel scene complementing the opposite cover depicting the seated lady and child with a dog at her feet in an alpine landscape, when the bird cover is opened, the bird rises from a foliate engraved surround and begins to move and the song starts, activated by a slide in the edge of the case, the multicolored feathered articulated bird sings, rotates, opens its beak, fl aps its wings and moves its tail. Gold with annular white enamel chapter ring with Arabic Read more…
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2012-03-11
