63,250 CHF
“Barking Dog with Cat” I. D. Piguet & P. Meylan, Geneva, No. 282. Made for the Chinese market, circa 1820. Very rare and very small 18K gold pearl-set quarter-repeating "barking dog" automaton watch. To be sold without reserve. Eccentric, set at the top of translucent Imperial blue enamel engine-turned plate, white enamel, Breguet numerals, outer minute track. Blued steel "lozenge" hands. The lower half with applied varicolored gold and silver automaton scene of a dog barking at a cat, the dog moving its head with each movement of the bellows, the whole on applied gold grass with a tree behind. Notes The watch repeats the hours and quarters with the sound of a barking dog, the rarest form of repeating. There are only about 20 of these watches known, of which the majority are after Jean-Baptiste Oudry's painting "Dog Attacked by a Swan". The present watch with the more realistic scene of a dog barking at a cat, is extremely rare. Additionally, the majority of barking dog watches are based on 44 or 45 mm. movements (20'''), while this one is only 14'''. We know of only one other such watch, which may in fact be its pendant. Isaac Daniel Piguet Born in 1775 in Le Chenit in the Vallée de Joux, Isaac Daniel Piguet was the son of Pierre Moïse Piguet and Elisabeth Nicole. He married Jeanne Françoise Capt around 1795, and around 1800 settled in Geneva with his family. Isaac Daniel Piguet went into business with Henry Daniel Capt, his brother-in-law, on February 10,
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2005-10-16
