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Lot Essay
This small and highly attractive multicoloured gold snuff box is a triumph of both the goldsmiths and the mechanician’s art. It has been tentatively suggested that the complex, almost miniaturized musical movement may have been made by Jaquet Droz (1721-1790), one of the most brilliant and innovative clockmakers of his era, specializing in musical and automaton watches and clocks, boxes, fans, singing birds and other ingenious playing-toys.
The manufacture of complex automata and musical movements was a specialty of the craftsmen of Geneva. By 1788, Geneva was at the centre of a trade which numbered nearly 1,500 watchmakers, goldsmiths, jewellers and enamellers. A combination of high skill, international salesmanship and competitive pricing made Genevan work successful in Europe, the Ottoman Empire and the Far East.
The M&P maker's mark appears on a number of Geneva boxes of the late 18th century in French taste. An example in the Louvre Museum (inv. OA2115) by this maker is a four-color gold oval box very similar in style to the case of the present example, although it is not musical. A very fine musical automaton snuffbox with four-bell carillon by M of Geneva is in the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House, London, another one with the addition of a tightrope dancer automaton, from the collection of Henry Ford II (1917–1987), is in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Boxes stamped M are all distinguished by very finely chiselled and matted goldwork.
A very similar box by M&P with 6-bell musical carillon was sold by Christie’s New York, 20 April 2001, lot 175.
The manufacture of complex automata and musical movements was a specialty of the craftsmen of Geneva. By 1788, Geneva was at the centre of a trade which numbered nearly 1,500 watchmakers, goldsmiths, jewellers and enamellers. A combination of high skill, international salesmanship and competitive pricing made Genevan work successful in Europe, the Ottoman Empire and the Far East.
The M&P maker's mark appears on a number of Geneva boxes of the late 18th century in French taste. An example in the Louvre Museum (inv. OA2115) by this maker is a four-color gold oval box very similar in style to the case of the present example, although it is not musical. A very fine musical automaton snuffbox with four-bell carillon by M of Geneva is in the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House, London, another one with the addition of a tightrope dancer automaton, from the collection of Henry Ford II (1917–1987), is in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Boxes stamped M are all distinguished by very finely chiselled and matted goldwork.
A very similar box by M&P with 6-bell musical carillon was sold by Christie’s New York, 20 April 2001, lot 175.