Jon Baddeley
Specialist Consultant Collectors, Science & Marine
Lot 59
An exceptional key-wind hooked-tooth part-overture musical box, most certainly by D. Lecoultre, circa 1839,
3 May 2012, 13:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge£8,000 - £12,000
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An exceptional key-wind hooked-tooth part-overture musical box, most certainly by D. Lecoultre,
circa 1839,
Ser. No. 8380, stamped perpendicular to top left-hand side of bedplate,
playing two part overtures full revolution and two dances two-per-turn, with single-spring motor, single-section comb on plain polished brass bedplate, raised glass dustlid runners to figured blonde birch veneered interior repeated to the inside of the lid, in full rosewood veneered case with exposed controls, stamped polished brass control plaque and later ormolu cast carrying handles, the lid bearing fine tulipwood geometric foliage swags and central lyre inlay and single strung border, repeated in part to the front flanked by blued bedplate screws, with period winding and lid keys - 13.1/4in. (33.5cm) wide, the cylinder 7.3/16in. (18.5cm), the diameter 2.1/2in. (6.5cm)
Ser. No. 8380, stamped perpendicular to top left-hand side of bedplate,
playing two part overtures full revolution and two dances two-per-turn, with single-spring motor, single-section comb on plain polished brass bedplate, raised glass dustlid runners to figured blonde birch veneered interior repeated to the inside of the lid, in full rosewood veneered case with exposed controls, stamped polished brass control plaque and later ormolu cast carrying handles, the lid bearing fine tulipwood geometric foliage swags and central lyre inlay and single strung border, repeated in part to the front flanked by blued bedplate screws, with period winding and lid keys - 13.1/4in. (33.5cm) wide, the cylinder 7.3/16in. (18.5cm), the diameter 2.1/2in. (6.5cm)
Footnotes
Condition: X I 1
Comprehensively restored by Mr. Max Plummer.
The first air has been identified as an abridged version of d'une nuit d'Ete, by Kreutzer, which is also pinned on the Nicole Freres Grand Format (lot 65) as air number four in this sale.
The notational qualities, although attributed to the Lecoultre group of names, would be narrowed down to either David Lecoultre or Henri Lecoultre before the merger with Granger. No tunesheet exists for this box.