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View full screen - View 1 of Lot 209. A PEARL, GOLD AND ENAMEL SINGING BIRD BOX, JAQUET-DROZ & LESCHOT, GENEVA, CIRCA 1792-1793, THE CASE GUIDON, RÉMOND, GIDE & CO., GENEVA.

A PEARL, GOLD AND ENAMEL SINGING BIRD BOX, JAQUET-DROZ & LESCHOT, GENEVA, CIRCA 1792-1793, THE CASE GUIDON, RÉMOND, GIDE & CO., GENEVA

This lot has been withdrawn

Lot Details

Description

oval, the later lid painted on the exterior with Florizel and the maidens after a painting by Charles Reuben Ryley (1752?–1798), combined with Hero, Ursula and Beatrice in Leonato’s Garden (from Much Ado About Nothing), painted by Matthew Peters and engraved for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, the interior painted with flowers, visible when opened to reveal a feathered miniature bird singing, opening and closing its ivory beak and flapping its wings, the opaque light blue enamel ground within white, translucent dark blue and green enamel with elaborate paillon ornaments, the lid and the aperture set with a split-pearl border, maker's mark, the movement signed 'Jaquet Droz & Leschot / London No. 30',

8.9cm., 3½in. wide

This lot contains endangered species. Sotheby's recommends that buyers check with their own government regarding any importation requirements prior to placing a bid. For example, US regulations restrict or prohibit the import of certain items to protect wildlife conservation. Please note that Sotheby's will not assist buyers with the shipment of this lot to the US. A buyer's inability to export or import these lots cannot justify a delay in payment or sale cancellation. This lot has been withdrawn from the sale.

Gustave Loup Collection

The Sir David Salomons Collection, cat. no. 169

Vera Bryce Salomons

L.A. Mayer Memorial Institute, Jerusalem, inventory no. BO 12-70

Alfred Chapuis & Edouard Gélis, Le Monde des Automates. Paris, 1928, vol. ii, pp. 114-6, illustrated fig. 390, p. 112;

George Daniels & Ohannes Markarian, Watches and Clocks in the Sir David Salomons Collection, 1980, no. 169, p.283;

Ian White/Julia Clarke, The Majesty of the Chinese-Market Watch, London, 2019, no. 6-1, pp. 239-240

The account books of Jean-Frédéric Leschot (1746–1824) list a pair of singing-bird boxes, number 30, which were dispatched to Jean Duval & fils, London, on 27 March 1793. They were packed in cartons labelled IDF and travelled via Audibert of Calais to Henry Maillardet, Leschot’s agent in London, who would verify that all was in working order. The boxes were described as:

'No. 30. A pair of oval gold Tabatières, enamelled in turquoise blue, the base, sides and compartments decorated with arabesques in ors grippés, coloured borders, and the medallions of the cover with beautiful painted scenes, with small and larger pearl frames, and with natural-sounding singing-bird mechanism and musical air, with gold and enamel key, £127.10 = £255 sterling.'

It is clear that the later lid was added to the box before its publication in Chapuis's book (a copy of the photograph supplied by Loup is in the Chapuis Archive at the Musée d'Horlogerie, Le Locle). This would explain why the subject appears to be derived from a combination of sources rather than from a single print as was more usual in the late 18th century. It also proves that the present box, purchased by Sir David Salomons, is that formerly owned by Loup, rather than the missing pair.