![]() ![]() ![]() While the snuff box is of grand dimensions, this object packs more mechanical functions into even smaller dimensions. Lot 2230: Nécessaire with watch, music box, and automaton It has an estimate of HK$20-40 million, or around US$2.57-5.14 million. It is arguably comparable to the finest singing bird-pistol automatons, a pair of which remain the most valuable automaton ever sold, having sold for almost US$6 million in 2011. It is just one of the five magician box known, and the most complicated of them. ![]() Last sold at Sotheby’s London in 1964, this box has remained in a private collection for the last six decades, so its reappearance at auction is no doubt exciting. That said, it is very early – it can only answer one question at a time, and up to six in total. Each of the questions is recorded on a tiny tablet, which are all stored in a tiny drawer located at the bottom right of the box.Įven the base of the box is finely enamelled The snuff box must have been an extraordinarily intriguing and mysterious object in the 19th century – remember there wasn’t even electricity then – and arguably qualifies as an early computer of sorts. While the decoration is magnificent, the magician automaton within is even more impressive – able to answer a fixed set of questions with pre-programmed answers while simultaneously playing a musical tune. Typical of items made for the Qing China, the box is set with pearls framed in gold – the whole box is solid gold in fact – which sit on top of a brightly coloured, guilloche enamel surface. While the composition of the miniature is identical to the original, its differs from the original painting in that the magician was transformed from a grey-haired, elderly necromancer to a younger man wearing a turban, perhaps reflecting the prevailing European fascination with the Orient at the time. Based on The Necromancer by Jean Baptiste Le Prince, one version of which hangs in London’s National Gallery, the miniature-enamel painting depicts a young man and woman consulting a magician. And above all, the box captures the remarkable work of 19th Geneva watchmakers and jewellers, making it a bona fide treasure.Īround 90 mm long and 55 mm wide, the snuff box is large for such an object, allowing for a full miniature-enamel painting on the lid. It stands out not only for its artisanal quality, but also its mechanical complexity – the automaton plays musics and “answers” questions. Made in the early 1800s for the Chinese market, the flagship lot of the sale is an ornate snuff box with an automaton that ranks amongst the most important of such objects. ![]() Lot 2229: McCullough Magician Question-and-Answer Musical Automaton snuff box And the estimate? It starts at US$2.57 million. 2499, but instead it is an early-19th century snuff box that incorporates a question-and-answer automata. The top lot in the upcoming sale is not ex-Clapton Patek Philippe or a ref. Although the circle of collectors who pursue such objects is small, it is certainly well heeled. 6300A mega-complication that sold for over US$33 million in 2019.īut elaborately enamelled pocket watches are arguably the closest thing to fine art in horology, because of the intrinsic nature of the artisanal decoration as well as the historical importance. Now the most expensive timepiece ever sold is the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime ref. With the rise of wristwatches as the preeminent collecting category, demand for automata and pocket watches have declined sharply. Almost 400-years old, this pocket watch made by Jehan Cremsdorff sold for £2.175m, or about US$2.734m, including fees, at Sotheby’s in 2019 ![]()
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