the movement struck with mark nand numbered 430, Geneva, circa 1860. Rectangular box with receding lobed corners, the sides and base engine-turned and engraved with flower sprays and blank reserves, the cover enamelled with a mountainous landscape within a scrolling border partly enamelled in blue, the sides cast with four drop-shaped corners, a slide on the front side opening the hinged oval flap enamelled with a mountainous riverside landscape view at the outside and with a flower spray on the pale blue ground at the inside and releasing the mechanism of the colourfully plumed singing bird rotating on its axis, flapping its wings, wagging its tail, turning its head and opening its beak, the associate key in rear key compartment Christie's London. A surprising bid for a box produced during the mid-19th Century. It carried a £ 5,000 to 7,000 estimate. Had it been produced at the beginning of the 19th Century the final price would have been much more impressive. |