95th Auction

2017/5/6

Lot 519

French, 82 x 51 x 48 mm, circa 1810
An extremely rare Vernis Martin singing bird box with painted genre scenes
Case: Horn/Vernis Martin, oblong box. Automaton movement: rectangular movement, full plate, chain/fusee, bellows. The colourful bird turns left and right, opens and closes its beak and flaps wings and tail.
The sides of the box show polychrome early 19th century genre scenes painted on gold-coloured ground - the colours are strikingly luminous. The lid is decorated with a central oval badge painted with a homely scene of a mother and her children. The front of the box has a slider to set the automaton in motion: a feathered bird in before an open-work engraved gilt plate. The base is hinged to conceal the winding arbor.

Sold

estimated
4.2006.000 €
Price realized
6.200 €