Swiss gold quarter repeating automaton watch Circa 1815

Gold and enamel automaton watch by Piguet & Meylan
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A fine gold and enamel open faced quarter repeating barking dog automaton watch, circa 1815. The watch features a gilded asymmetrical half-plate movement with a cylinder escapement, a three-arm gold balance, and a plunge repeat that activates the quarter repeating and the bellows for the barking dog. The gilt metal cuvette has apertures for winding and hand-setting. The movement main plate beneath the dial is scratch-signed par J D Piguet et S Meylan à Genève, Ferrer Akaina, indistinctly stamped P & [?], and numbered 7. The dial has an eccentric white enamel dial with Arabic numerals, a translucent blue enamel background over engine-turning, and a varicoloured gold scene of a dog barking at a swan. The dog’s head raises and lowers while barking the hours and quarters. The case is made of gold, with the back engine-turned, milled band, locking slide lacking to the right of the pendant, and a vent for bellows below 6 o’clock. The case back is separately stamped FO [probably Frères Oltramere] and PC.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Signed: J. D. Piguet et S. Meylan à Genève
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The movement is running, but there are issues with repeating work and barking sounds. The dog’s head is not raising and lowering properly. The top plate beneath the dial is stamped ‘P’ with a possibly indistinct ‘&’ next to it. There are hairline cracks and multiple hairlines on the time dial, as well as chips at the edges. The case has a small tear beneath the pendant, a couple of pinholes, wear to the polished bezel, and some wear to the engine-turning towards the edges. The glass is loose, and the repeating locking slide is lacking on the band on the right side of the pendant. The venting aperture for the bark is stuck in the open position below 6 o’clock.
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A rare form of repeating watch, the sound of the ‘Barking Dog’ is ingeniously reproduced by a set of bellows activated by depressing the pendant, marking the hours and quarters. To achieve the sound, the mechanism exerts pressure on a miniature bellows connected to a whistle vented through an aperture which simultaneously opens to the lower edge of the case.
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Just over 20 ‘Barking Dog’ automata watches are known. Watches featuring a barking dog automaton were usually produced with a dog barking at a swan or cat. The bird and swan theme is believed to have been based on paintings from the 1740s by Jean Baptiste Oudry (1686–1755), while the scene of a dog barking at a cat was most likely based on a design by the painter Johann Wenzel Peter (1745–1829). Such scenes were also translated onto gold boxes by mosaicists such as Domenico Moglia (1780–1862). It is not inconceivable that Piguet and Meylan were aware of these fashionable mosaics since many were bought as plaques by travellers on the Grand Tour and mounted by Geneva gold box makers.
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For two other barking dog watches by Piguet Meylan, numbered 134 and 140 and with cases by Frères Oltramere, see: P. Friess, Patek Philippe Museum, The Emergence of the Portable Watch, Vol. IV, pp. 56–57. Interestingly, the two aforementioned watches are also scratch-engraved ‘par J. D. Piguet et S. Meylan à Genève’ in the same position on the main plate as the present watch; indeed, the scratch engraving appears to have been executed by the same hand and in the same manner as that on the present watch.