About this lot

Description

probably French, circa 1890, possibly by Bontems, the rectangular box with engraved silver corner pillars, metal base with winding aperture, start/stop slider to front right, going barrel movement number 2017, the top with an oval hinged cover decorated with a reverse glass painted plaque featuring a bird of paradise; on sliding the operating lever the cover opens and the full bodied bird with multi-coloured layered feathered plumage with predominant tones of green and blue complemented with green, red, orange and blue iridescent hummingbird feathers, rises through the finely tooled and pierced gilt grille & begins singing, moving the wings, beak and tailfeather to continuous realistic birdsong, and after the performance descends down through the grille, presented with a winding key

Footnote: Other notes: The singing bird box (boîte à oiseau chanteur ) has its origins in Geneva in the late 18th century. However, during the second half of the nineteenth century until the early 1900s, Paris was the booming centre of automata production worldwide.

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