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Lot no. 27 -
Attribuée aux Frères Rochat Avec similitudes du mécanisme musical que l’on trouve dans certaines réalisations de John RICH Genève/Londres, premier tiers du XIXème siècle Exceptional automaton...
Exceptional automaton case with three golds: yellow, pink and green, rectangular with cut-off sides and rich enamelled decorations of foliage and palmettes. The rim and back are in radiant, translucent blue enamel, with guilloché reserve frames. Music with 1 tune per brass cylinder with picots.
Unsigned mechanism. Mark S and D for SENE & DETALLA, Master Goldsmith
Size: 92 x 57 x 40 mm
Enamel jumps and lacks of enamel; Key applied
Mechanism :
Good general condition, no shortages. The current non-functioning is due to the anchor hook of the chain being detached from the spring.
Description :
Interior of a miniature theatre in the taste of the 18th century, presented in a rectangular gold box with cut-off sides. This is the decor of this exceptional snuffbox animated with automated characters. In a real perspective, built according to the rules of classical architecture, nineteen characters are represented here. On the left side, two stage boxes are inhabited by eight women in bust, a man with an ogorn, and another with a bicorn. The whole is animated by the sliding of a backdrop synchronising the stage. On the right-hand side, an orchestra box houses a conductor and three musicians. The upper dressing room has four women in bust which are not automated. Behind one of them is the winding square of the mechanism, which can be carefully concealed thanks to the bust of the same figure. Finally, in the centre of the stage, a jig dancer moves from right to left, hopping and making entrechats. All these animations are musical. A pinned cylinder raises fifty-six separate and twin blades, releasing the sound and playing the tune of an English jig for forty seconds, renewable on demand by a side push button.
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