Swiss gold musical watch with three automaton jacks Circa 1810

Gold repeater retailed by Mignolet
–
An equally rare Swiss, 18 carat gold and painted on enamel, quarter repeating musical watch, circa 1810. With musicians and birds automaton scene on the dial plate, playing at will. Retailed by Mignolet, Rue N.ve Des P.its Champs à Paris. An Empire case, maker’s mark ID, polished back and bezel, a reeded band with button at 5 o’clock to activate the music and automaton. Hinged gilt cuvette engraved with a musical score and the retailer’s details, apertures for winding and hand setting. Small eccentric gold dial, engine turned and engraved. Breguet numerals are on a plain reserve, and there are outer dot minute divisions and steel Breguet hands.
–
The gold dial plate is finely painted on enamel with a scene of a landscape with a classical fountain, the foreground applied with a varicoloured gold chased automaton scene of a seated gentleman playing the mandolin and a seated lady playing the lyre, to the side two birds in an arbour, one moving towards the other with the music. Gilt brass, full plate movement, finely foliate engraved, 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 clock with a jewelled end piece, Maltese cross stop work, silver regulation dial, repeating on gongs activated by depressing the pendant. Musical train with pinned barrels and eight blued steel tuned blades mounted in two stacks of four sets between the plates.
–
Diameter: 59 mm
–
Signed: Henry Capt  Genève
–
Signed by Hy. Capt à Genève on the movement ring, case and movement numbered 602. This watch is the work of the exceptional Genevan watchmaker Henry Capt and is one of the few known watches by him to be fully signed (on the movement ring). It exhibits several unusual technical features; the musical movement is enclosed between the plates with two stacks of tuned blades and a pinned barrel instead of the more usual sure plateau type. This technically challenging arrangement allows the automaton to operate unhindered and gives a more pleasing musical sound. The automaton is of higher specification than most with three animations on the dial instead of the usual two. The arm of each musician moves and a charming scene of two billing doves in an arbour, one dove appears when the music starts and disappears at the end of the tune.
–
Literature: A very similar watch formerly in the B. Franck Collection, Paris, is illustrated in Le Monde des Automates, Chapuis & Gélis, 1984 ed., fig. 305. Henry Daniel Capt was 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 his son, Place Bel Air. Their signature was Aubert & Capt. 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 they are rarely fully signed.