Centuries of Time: A Private Collection
Centuries of Time: A Private Collection
Piguet & Meylan
A rare and fine gold and enamel open-faced quarter repeating 'barking dog' automaton watch Circa 1815, no. 7
Auction Closed
May 14, 02:23 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 CHF
Lot Details
Description
Piguet & Meylan
A rare and fine gold and enamel open-faced quarter repeating 'barking dog' automaton watch
Circa 1815, no. 7
• Movement: gilded asymmetrical half plate movement, cylinder escapement, three-arm gold balance, plunge repeat activating the quarter repeating and the bellows for the 'barking dog', gilt-metal cuvette with apertures for winding and hand-setting, movement main plate beneath dial scratch signed par J D Piguet et S Meylan à Genève, ferrer Akaina, indistinctly stamped P & [?] and numbered 7
• Dial: eccentric white enamel dial, Arabic numerals, restored translucent blue enamel background over engine-turning, vari-coloured gold scene of a dog barking at a swan, the dog's head raises and lowers while barking the hours and quarters
• Case: gold, the back engine-turned, milled band, locking slide lacking to right of pendant, vent for bellows below 6 o'clock, case back separately stamped FO [probably Frères Oltramere] and PC and numbered 7
diameter 55mm
A very rare form of repeating watch, the sound of the ‘Barking Dog’ is ingeniously reproduced by a set of bellows activated by depressing the pendant, thus also marking the hours and quarters. To achieve the sound, the mechanism exerts a sharp pressure on a miniature bellows connected to a whistle vented through an aperture which simultaneously opens to the lower edge of the case.
Just over 20 ‘Barking Dog’ automata watches are known. Watches featuring a barking dog automaton were usually produced with a dog barking at a swan or cat. The bird and swan theme is believed to have been based on paintings from the 1740s by Jean Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755) while the scene of a dog barking at a cat was most likely based on a design by the painter Johann Wenzel Peter (1745-1829). Such scenes were also translated onto gold boxes by mosaicists such as Domenico Moglia (1780-1862). It is not inconceivable that Piguet & Meylan were aware of these fashionable mosaics, since many were bought as plaques by travellers on the Grand Tour and mounted by Geneva gold box makers.
For two other barking dog watches by Piguet Meylan, numbered 134 and 140 and with cases by Frères Oltramere, see: P. Friess, Patek Philippe Museum, The Emergence of the Portable Watch Vol. IV, pp. 56-57. Interestingly the two aforementioned watches are also scratch engraved 'par J D Piguet et S Meylan à Genève' in exactly the same position on the main plate as the present watch - indeed, the scratch engraving appears to have been executed by the same hand and in the same manner as that on the present watch.