Swiss rare gold and enamel musical scent flacon Circa 1807

Gold and enamel musical scent flacon
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A Swiss fine and rare 18k gold and enamel musical scent flacon, for the Chinese market, circa 1807, flattened pear form, front fitted with an oval medallion painted with a polychrome enamel trophy of agriculture against an architectural setting,  the reverse with a musical trophy heightened in tones of yellow and white enamel  against an opaque green enamel ground, each panel with midnight blue translucent enamel reserves over engine-turning, the upper portion further set with translucent red enamel on an engine-turned ground and heightend by a flower laden cornucopia below a quiver and arrow, the reverse similarly enamelled and heightened by a basket of flowers, the sides engraved with a running band of leaf tips framed within egg and dart mouldings and heightened with champlevé enamel powder blue and black enamel, threaded stopper, pinned barrel musical movement comprising six teeth divided between the top and bottom, music regulated by a governor, the music released by means of a lever below the front panel, music work scratched Piguet & Capt a Geneve, the interior of the top cover stamped G.D.
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Length: 81 mm
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Signed: Piguet & Capt Genève
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This watch is one of two Musical Scent Flacons of nearly identical construction. The second piece, Piguet & Capt, has a different enamel scene. Numbered 86, the second one was formerly in the King Farouk Collection and was sold by Sotheby & Co., The Palace Collections of Egypt, Koubbeh Palace, Cairo, March 10th–17th, 1954, pl. 24, lot 538.

Today the Farouk piece forms part of a Swiss National Collection and was exhibited at Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Zurich, in 1996. For an illustration of No. 86, including the music work, see Salz, Klangkunst 200 Jahre Musikdosen.

Isaac Daniel Piguet (1775–1841) and Henri Capt (1773–1837?) were partners from 1802 to 1811 in the firm bearing their name, Piguet & Capt. The duo is considered among the most important makers of small objects incorporating music, automata, and watches at the end of the 18^th and beginning of the 19^th centuries. Examples attributed to them are exhibited in the world’s foremost collections, such as the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.