Switzerland, Geneve

circa 1808

Bessiere & Schneider

Gold, diamonds, pearl, brass, steel; engraving, painted enamel, champlevé enamel, gem stones setting

Height 8 cm; width 1.8 cm; depth 5 cm, 44 g

Manufacturer's mark in the form of horizontal lozenge with letters "B" and "S", separated by a sword. A crown and an inscription: '' By Appointment Antique Dealers S.J. Phillips Ltd, 139 New Bond St., London, W.1.'' are on the stamp.

Gold box in the form of a harp with a music movement consists of resonator case with a deck, a curved neck with ornament, sixteen strings and a vertical bar. There is a painted enamel with a still-life image of a peach and a basket of flowers in a white enamel frame on the front panel of the body frame. A field of blue enamel with ornament is above. An aperture for a spring winding is in the lower part. A quiver with arrows in a frame of half pearls is on the field of dark blue transparent enamel. A bar in the form of a column with a cylindrical capitel, decorated with floral ornament on black enamel with a rose-cut diamonds, is intertwined with a narrow ribbon of blue champlevé enamel. The pegs on the neck are small rose-cut diamonds. Music movement with a sound comb with steel teeth and a program cylinder with pins. A small sliding along the aperture pin with graduations and the letters «L» (slowly) and «V» (quickly), adjusts the speed. It is located on the polished resonator case with champlevé enamel flowers of black and blue colour.