Lot 79

Attributed to Charles-Armand Marguerat, Geneva, Height 155 mm, circa 1925
An amusing silver enamel singing bird box desk timepiece with alarm - with original presentation box
Case: silver, gilt, enamel. Dial: gilt. Movm.: French 8-day brass movement, screw compensation balance. Automaton mechanism: rectangular gilt brass movement, going barrel, rectangular bellows.
The rectangular box is allover decorated with translucent cobalt blue enamel over engine-turned pattern. The top is fitted with an oval, hinged enamel lid decorated with a polychrome scene of a boat sailing on Lake Geneva; it opens to reveal the singing bird before an open-work gilt brass grille. A front slide activates the automaton: the colourful bird rotates, flaps its wings and tail, and open its beak. When the song is finished, the bird retreats into the box and the lid closes. Two fluted columns rise from the box to support the drum shaped timepiece that is decorated with engine-turned pattern; it has a bezel with translucent cobalt blue enamelling and a gilt dial.
A similar red enamelled example is illustrated in "Flights of Fancy - Mechanical Singing Birds" by Sharon und Christian Bailly, 2001, p. 368.