Hôtel Lambert, Une Collection Princière, Volume V : L’Écrin
Hôtel Lambert, Une Collection Princière, Volume V : L’Écrin
A pearl-set gold and enamel singing bird box, Jaquet-Droz & Leschot, Geneva, circa 1805
Auction Closed
October 14, 05:38 PM GMT
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
A pearl-set gold and enamel singing bird box, Jaquet-Droz & Leschot, Geneva, circa 1805
of cut-cornered rectangular form, the lid centred with later oval pearl-framed enamel plaque painted with a young girl admiring her flower wreath in a mirror, opening to reveal the hummingbird-feathered automaton bird flapping its wings and opening and closing its ivory beak to sing, within an openwork grille chased with floral scrollwork including parrot tulips and a plain banner signed : Jt & Léchot / à Genève, all sides enamelled in translucent blue and black enamel ground over complicated engine- turning picking up the feather pattern of the bird, within split-pearl or swagged taille d'épargne borders, the angles hung with theatrical curtains and tassels enamelled in dark red and black, each centred with small oval gold plaque engraved with symbols of love such as a flaming heart or Cupid’s quiver, the base inset with a fine enamel plaque representing visitors in a racy high perch phaeton admiring an Alpine landscape and covering the key compartment, maker's mark M crowned incuse
width 3½ in., 9 cm.
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Boîte à oiseau chanteur en or et émail sertie de perles, Jaquet-Droz & Leschot, Genève, vers 1805
rectangulaire à pans coupés, le couvercle orné d'une plaque d'émail peinte postérieurement révélant l'oiseau automate, dans une grille ajourée ciselée de rinceaux et une bannière signée : Jt & Léchot / à Genève, poinçon d'orfèvre M couronné estampé
width 3½ in., 9 cm.
Sotheby's Paris, 15 April 2010, lot 61.
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Sotheby's Paris, 15 avril 2010, lot 61.
Jean-Frédéric Leschot (1746-1824) was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a Swiss town well known for its horological achievements. From an early age he worked for their neighbour Pierre Jaquet Droz (1721-1790) and his son Henry-Louis (1752-1791). The exploits of the Jaquets Droz in creating innovative automata of all sizes are well-known. They travelled widely in Europe, showing and selling their automata at royal courts, setting up business in London and, through their associate Henri Maillardet and the entrepreneur James Cox, exporting to the East. In 1769 Leschot became partner in the firm which moved base in 1784 to Geneva. From 1790 until his retirement in 1810, Leschot was dogged by business difficulties and tragic events outside his control. He lost his two partners in 1790 and 1791, the firm of Cox & Beale in Canton failed in 1792, leaving him with vast debts and the outbreak of the French revolutionary wars made what trade remained very difficult. His correspondence, conserved in the University Library in Geneva, gives a vivid picture of the struggles of a man who was inspired technically but not as business-minded as his mentor.
The current singing bird box is particularly lavish in its ornament, set with both an enamel plaque on the lid and on the base, all framed by half pearls. Its pair, with a matching plaque on the base, the phaeton on the opposite side, the lid with a Roman subject, was sold at Sotheby's Zurich, 6 May 1980, lot 109. Another double-opening box with similar pearl ornament and the base panel signed by Richter is illustrated by Sharon Bailly, Oiseaux de bonheur, Geneva, 2001, pp. 106/7. A pair of such boxes, 2 tabatières octogones ... émaillées à étoffe cadres à perles dessus et dessous, are listed in Leschot's Livre d'ouvriers as having been supplied by Rémond Lami & Comp. in 1803. Such a date for the current box may well explain the curious signature which replaces the more common Jaquet-Droz & Leschot à Londres/London with Jaquet-Droz & Léchot à Genève. If the box was intended for the Paris market rather than for export, Leschot's usual reasoning that anything said to have been made in England would sell better, would not stand when the two countries (Geneva having been conquered by France in 1797) were once more at war following the Peace of Amiens. It is clear the box was not intended for export to China, since Leschot explained in another letter of 6 May 1792 to Henri Maillardet that he had been told that enamels showing figures in European dress were not popular there so boxes should only be ornamented with flowers or 'arabesques'.