362 - Raymy zugeschr./attr. to - Château de Chillon

Raymy zugeschr./attr. to - Château de Chillon A very fine, rare silver-enamel Geneva singing bird box with integrated watch and original winding key Case No. 605 121, Dimensions 102 x 65 x 38 mm, circa 1910, Weight 513 g, Origin Schweiz, Accessories Case: Silver, guilloché pattern, engraved. Dial: Silvered, matt gold-plated engravings, Arabic numerals, blued spade-shaped hands. Movm.: Watch movement: bridge movement, lever escapement, screw compensation balance. Automaton mechanism: rectangular, full-plate, bellows, going barrel. When the movement is wound and the slider for the automaton is pushed to the right, the finely painted enamel lid opens and a chirping bird rises, fluttering its wings and opening its beak while turning from one side to the other. The oval enamel medallion that conceals the bird is decorated with an exquisite miniature painting of the eastern end of Lake Geneva near Montreux with Castle Chillon (Château de Chillon); in the background an impressive mountain range and a sailing boat is visible. The inside of the lid is smooth. The vividly coloured feathers of the bird rising from a gilded lattice floor are canary red, sea-blue and emerald green with iridescent highlights. The rectangular box is exquisitely engraved and engine-turned all over and creates a marvelous resonant sound. It is in the form of the earlier Bruguier boxes with canted corners. On the reverse is an oval medallion engraved with musical instruments; on the front is a watch set within a horizontal oval frame. Raymy was active in Geneva from around 1903. However, as there are hardly any records, advertisements or significant evidence of his reputation from his workshop, the dates are speculative. Some of his boxes are held in museums and important collections. Two further songbird boxes are illustrated in: ‘Flights of Fancy: Mechanical Singing Birds’, Sharon & Christian Bailly, Antiquorum Editions, 2001, pp. 372 and 373. Case: very good. Dial: very good, slightly oxydized. Movm.: very good, capable of running.