A pearl-set gold and enamel musical watch snuff box, Henri Neisser, Geneva, circa 1808

‘Here one can find a casemaker who gives a delicate form to his works and a precise finish to his hinges, there one sees bijoutiers of refined taste who invent new areas to exploit – there are enamellers who, no less skillful, diversify the enamels, refine them and give them those crystalline and sparkling hues which please the eye – Here again are engravers, engine-turners, enamel painters with their pupils, who can vary their styles and who successfully practice the art of divining the different tastes of the nations whither their works will go’ (Marc-Théodore Bourrit, Itinéraire de Genève, Lausanne et Chamomi, J.E. Didider, Chamonix, p. 52-53, in: Ian White/Julia Clarke, The Majesty of the Chinese Market Watch, London, 2019, p. 69). One of the most talented bijoutiers working in Geneva, and particularly in the neighbourhood of Saint-Gervais, where this observation was made by a contemporary artist and alpinist, was Henri Christian Neisser. Born in Hanau, he trained in the south-western German town before arriving in Geneva in 1783, where he worked as a compagnon bijoutier for Isaac Forget for 16 years. In 1798 he married Louise Debary and went into business with Messrs Sené & Detalla. Independent evidence shows that the partnership of Sené & Detalla became Sené & Neisser in October 1805, and a joint mark was entered in 1807. One year later, however, following Sené’s death in November 1808, Neisser registered a mark on his own, and a second one in 1815. This mark was withdrawn, presumably on Neisser’s retirement, in July 1830.

From 1781, the Swiss watch and enamel industry created marvellous pocket watches and objects of vertu for the Chinese Market, originally destined to attract attention from the Imperial Court, and they sometimes undertook the long and difficult journey from Geneva via London, still benefitting from the capital’s impeccable reputation for watch and clock making (Julia Clarke, The Geneva Fabrique: Watch case makers to enamel painters, in: White/Clarke, 2019, p. 69).

The fact that a ‘pair’ to this box exists - an almost identical gold box with a mirrored enamel scene on the lid and the same designs on the sides (see Highlights, Dr. Crott Auctioneers, Mannheim), as was often the case for the Far Eastern market - makes it highly likely that the present musical gold box by Henri Neisser was also created to travel towards Asia. Exporting these objects to the Far East was an incredibly costly endeavor, meaning that only the most talented jewellers, watch makers and enamel painters, such as Henri Neisser and Jean George Rémond, were entrusted with their creation, explaining the high quality of automata, gold boxes or musical fancies like the present lot.

According to Alfred Chapuis, the signature 'Batard fils' appears on the springs of numerous automata between around 1788 and 1815, including on springs for a complicated two-handled vase which he illustrates in Le Monde des Automates, vol. ii, p. 67. Emmanuel Ba[s]tard (1751-1824), was the third in a line of 'faiseurs de ressorts' in Geneva, his grandfather Jacques having come from nearby Dardagny to be received as habitant in 1722. His father, Jean François, had been an admirer and correspondent of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Emmanuel had been received as bourgeois of the city in 1770, the year following his father's death, but had later run foul of the Second Revolutionary Tribunal in 1794 when a large number of citizens received sentences from death downwards, both for extreme left-wing politics as well as for those wishing to retain the status quo like Ba[s]tard. Emmanuel's sentence was a two year suspension of political rights and a year's house arrest; given the unrest of the times it is unlikely the sentence was enforced.