Vintage Reuge Automaton Musical Alarm Pocket Watch 17 Jewel The Huntsman ' S Rest”
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:18994351 | Brand: Reuge |
| Country/Region of Manufacture: Switzerland | Modified Item: No |
| Movement: Mechanical (Key-winding) | Number of Jewels: 17 Jewels |
| Features: 12-Hour Dial, Alarm |
Vintage Reuge Automaton Musical Alarm Pocket Watch 17 Jewel The Huntsman's Rest Gent's, musical, gold-plated, center-seconds, keyless pocket watch with automaton and alarm, Reuge Music box plays Mozart - "Minuet, Serenade and A Little Night Music", No. 14** made by Charles Reuge, Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, Accompanied by the original fitted box, key and instruction manual.DescriptionCase: 56/57 mm, three-leaf, polished gold plated bezel, coin-reeded case band, engine-turned back cover ...in a combined design of foliage, musical instrument and a stylized hummingbird, hinged back cover with the cuvette with aperture for winding the music/automaton and button for activating both the music and automaton. The cuvette is marked no. '14**and Reuge a Sainte-Croix'. There is a suppressed ball fluted pendant and bow @12 and the alarm is set from the fluted crown @11. Dial: White with Arabic hours, outer bar minute markers, gilt Breguet hands, gilt alarm pointer and the dial marked 'Reuge, 17 jewels'. The small asymmetrically placed dial is surrounded by a painted view of a country landscape with applied gilt metal automaton of a lady operating a water pump with moving water, a falconer watering his horse with a hawk on his moving arm and the horse with animated head drinking from the fountain, gilt metal foliage with two dogs and a basket in the foreground. Movement: Not shown but is a rhodium-plated, 17 jewel, straight-line lever escapement, monometallic balance, flat balance spring, shock absorber, index regulator and attached pinned cylinder musical component. The lyre-shaped watch movement key is present. Condition: In very fine overall condition, a movement considered genuine, original and functional.Charles Reuge founded a Swiss company «Reuge» in 1865. Charles Reuge settled down in the town of St Croix's in Switzerland where he was engaged in the production of music clocks. In 1886 Charles’s son, Albert, registered the Reuge trademark and started the production of music boxes, turning his father’s modest workshop into a respected European manufacturer. Thanks to the investments and assistance of the Reuge family, the firm grew into one of the leading producers of music curiosities. The company was engaged in the production of various objects – from the inexpensive musical pocket watches to complicated jukeboxes and expensively decorated jewelry caskets. The development of the recording industry together with the emergence of record players, vinyl records, and tape recorders significantly reduced the demand for music boxes, thus affecting their manufacturers. However, following this recession music boxes became fashionable again in the 1950s. The Reuge Music company in Switzerland is still active, engaged in the production of music boxes, mechanical singing birds and music pocket watches. Reuge is one of Switzerland’s last surviving manufactures of music boxes of all shapes and sizes, with and without automata, of contemporary design with clear acrylic sides allowing to watch the movement operation. To a certain extent they had broken from the traditional cylinder patterns and started to produce conservative-looking music boxes with removable metal disks.
Auction value: $2, 000.00 - #3, 000.00Insurance value: $4, 500.00.
Auction value: $2, 000.00 - #3, 000.00Insurance value: $4, 500.00.
