Courtener

COURTENER "LA FORGE DE CUPIDON" AUTOMATON WATCH YELLOW GOLD Courtener à Strasbourg, Swiss. Made circa 1810. Very fine and rare, quarter-repeating, 18K gold and painted on enamel automaton pocket watch with jacks and separately activated automaton scene with five actions. Three-body, "Empire", engine-turned, flat band, rope-twist pendant. Small eccentric, white enamel with Breguet numerals, flanked by fine varicolored gold jacks of Ceres standing on a pillar and a putto holding a flaming torch appearing to strike bells when the repeating is activated. Blued steel Breguet hands. The painted on enamel dial plate painted with a country landscape and applied with a fine varicolored gold automaton scene depicting three cherubs busily working at a forge: one is forging arrows for Venus while another sharpens the arrow and the third tends to the fire, activated by a slide concealed beneath the bezel. 41 mm. gilt brass, full plate, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance-spring with regulator on a silvered plate, continental cock, repeating on gongs activated by depressing the pendant. The automaton train with two speed regulators on the backplate. Movement signed. Notes DIAM. 53 mm. This watch is very unusual in having a separate automaton scene activated independently by a slide concealed under the bezel. The striking jacks are activated by the repeating mechanism in the usual way. A watch with similar scene but without jacks was sold by ANTIQUORUM, G