BY PIGUET & CAPT (FL. 1802-1811), MARKED, GENEVA, CIRCA 1805, THE MOVEMENT SIGNED 'PIGUET & CAPT, GENEVE,123', THE CASE WITH MAKER'S MARK G D

Made for the Chinese export market, it had long been a tradition to send objects to China in pairs, so it is highly likely that the present example is the pair to the musical scent-bottle that was sold Sotheby's, Geneva, 15 May 2011, lot 124. It too was signed 'Piguet & Capt a Geneve' with the inventory number '124'. On this example the colours of the enamel have been inverted and the enamel on the reverse is apple-green. According to Alfred Chapuis, Le Miroir de la Séduction, Musée Patek Philippe, Geneva, 2010, pp. 28, "the Chinese love symmetry; all gifts to a superior, and above all the Emperor, were given in pairs." It seems certain that many pairs of Chinese Market watches and boxes were split up as a result of looting by the British and French during the raid on the Summer palace in Peking in 1860. Isaac Daniel Piguet (1775-1841) and Henri Capt (1773-1837) were partners from 1802 until 1811 in the firm bearing their name, Piguet & Capt. The pair are considered amongst the most important makers of small objects that incorporated music, automata and watches working in Geneva at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries.