Swiss gold musical watch with hidden erotic scene Circa 1810

Gold quarter repeating cylinder watch
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Extremely fine and equally rare Swiss 18 Carat gold and enamel two-train quarter repeating musical watch, circa 1810. With two automaton scenes, a see-saw automaton scene on the dial plate and concealed erotic automaton scene. Accompanied by a key. Empire case with a reeded band, the back polished. Fixed gold and finely painted on enamel cuvette with an automaton scene of a soldier with a maiden in the barn, activated via a steel cam when the music plays. Small eccentric gold dial, engine-turned and engraved, Breguet numerals on a plain reserve, outer dot minute divisions, the centre engraved with a rosette and blued steel spade hands.
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The gold dial plate with a polychrome enamel scene of a landscape with a waterfall, the foreground applied with a varicoloured gold chased automaton scene depicting a Cupid on a see-saw with a dragonfly accompanied by a seated lady playing the lyre. Gilt-brass, full plate double train movement with cylindrical pillars, going barrel and cylinder escapement, plain gold three arm balance, flat balance spring, small pierced and chased gilt-brass cock with a polished steel end piece, repeating on gongs activated by depressing the pendant, regulator arm protruding from under the cuvette with engraved scale at the edge. Musical train with pin barrel and six stacked steel blades.
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Diameter: 59 mm
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Signed: Henry Capt Genève
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This watch is undoubtedly the work of the exceptional Genevan watchmaker Henry Capt. It can be compared directly to other examples signed by him. Watches with see-saw automatons are extremely rare and this watch, with its additional concealed erotic automaton, is one of the very few known examples made by Henry Capt with two automaton scenes. The scene symbolizes the fragile balance of love. Psyche, a symbol of the soul in Greek mythology, has often been represented by a butterfly or dragonfly, symbolizing the fragility of emotions. Cupid (in Greek mythology Eros) plays with emotions when shooting his arrows, just as in this piece the cupid and the dragonfly are at play, perhaps in an allegory of the fight between body and soul.
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Henry-Daniel Capt Born in Chenit in 1773, he married Henriette Piguet. He specialized in the production of complicated watches, musical watches and automaton watches. Among the first in Geneva to use the musical mechanism with pinned cylinder and tuned teeth comb, he was famous for his snuffboxes with music and automaton scenes. From Ventôse 16, An X (March 7, 1802), to 1811, he formed a partnership with Daniel Isaac Piguet, who was from the same village as he. Their signature was Piguet & Capt. In 1811, when Piguet broke off to join Meylan in a new partnership, Henry-Daniel Capt continued to work on his own until, in 1830, he went into partnership with Aubert and son, Place Bel-Air. Their signature was Aubert & Capt.
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They were among the first Genevan makers to produce watches with chronographs. In 1844 the workshop was at 108, rue Neuve in Geneva. It was then managed by Capt’s son, Henry Capt Jr. After a short time it moved to 85, rue de la Fusterie, and in 1851, to 177, rue du Rhône. In 1880, the firm was bought by Gallopin and its name became H. Capt Horloger, Maison Gallopin Successeurs, a trademark registered on November 1, 1880, under the No. 44. This signature was only used for watches retailed in their own store, the watches supplied to other retailers being merely signed Henry Capt. Henri Capt, along with Isaac Piguet and Philippe Meylan, was the foremost maker of small musical automata in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Most of his work is not signed, although he sometimes scratched his name on his movements