page_title: Singing bird box
section_title: Switzerland: The cradle of the singing bird box and its development (1785–1885)
hierarchical_section_title: Singing bird box / Origins and evolution from the 18th to the 21st century / Switzerland: The cradle of the singing bird box and its development (1785–1885)
caption_attribution_description: English: Exceptional singing bird box with music and repeating watch by Frères Rochat, Geneva, No. 61, the box attributed to Georges Rémond et Compagnie. Made for the Chinese market circa 1820. Rare, 18K gold, enamel, pearl and turquoise-set singing bird box with independent musical movement and center-seconds, quarter-repeating watch. Four-body, rectangular with rounded corners decorated with royal blue translucent enamel swagged classical urns, each side and the base with panels of “basket” engine-turning, the borders decorated with royal blue translucent champlevé enamel stylized flowers and leaves, hinged side panel for the key compartment, hinged front panel with aperture for the watch with pearl-set border, the hinged top panel opening to reveal a polished and foliate engraved gold plate, oval medallion concealing the bird very finely chased with a bouquet of flowers set with pearls and turquoises within half-pearl-set frame, when the bird cover is opened, the bird rises and begins to move and the song starts, activated by a slide in the edge of the case, the articulated bird sings, rotates, turns its head, opens its beak, flaps its wings and moves its tail. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute and seconds dot divisions. Blued-steel spearhead hands, gold center-seconds hand. M. 17 x 63 mm, rectangular, brass, going barrel, cylinder escapement with brass escape wheel, three-arm balance, bluedsteel flat balance spring, repeating on two rectangular-shaped straight gongs via a gold slide at the base of the box. The singing bird movement: 45 x 70 mm., rectangular brass, fusee and chain, eight cams and a whistle with sliding piston for the song's modulation, the cams rotate four times per song and lift one step every rotation, allowing a long duration of singing, the multicolored feathered bird with moving wings, beak, tail, and turning head rotates on its axis, reflected on the inside of the medallion which is mirror-polished and concave, enlarging the bird in its reflection, cam-controlled rising of the bird medallion and the bird, with five-wheel train terminated with a pinion in eccentric adjustable bushing to regulate the speed of the opening and closing, this complicated mechanism allows for precision control of the order and speed of the bird rising and the medallion opening. Musical movement: Pin barrel playing with two stacks of eight tuned teeth each, with grasshopper-shaped vibrating tuned blades, activated by a bolt on the back of the case. Stamped "FR" in oval and numbered on the watch movement and bird movement. Dim. 87 x 62 x 28 mm. It is exceptional to find a singing bird box with both music and a watch with repeating. The musical movement is interesting in that it has tuned steel teeth of “grasshopper” form. The bent shape of these teeth was intended to provide greater length and therefore lower notes.
context_page_description: A singing bird box is a box, usually rectangular-shaped, which contains within a miniature automaton singing bird concealed below an oval lid and activated by means of an operating lever.
  Its origins are found in the city of Geneva and its invention in 1784/85 is attributed to Pierre Jaquet-Droz.
  The French term tabatière has also come to be used for any small decorative box resembling a snuffbox in form but not necessarily any longer used to contain snuff.
context_section_description: Besides sharing the same nationality, the major names in the early history of the singing bird box are all united by professional links.
  To Pierre Jaquet-Droz (born 1721), regarded as one of the most celebrated automata maker of all times, is credited the invention of the boîte à oiseau chanteur. In the book Le Monde des Automates by Chapuis and Gélis record that between 1770 and 1784 several makers including Jaquet-Droz and Jean-Frédéric Leschot (b. 1746) were making singing bird cages in which the bird song was produced by a miniature pipe-organ requiring a separate pipe for each note. The work to miniaturize the mechanical bird and develop a compact movement using a one and only single pipe of variable pitch was all completed in the year 1784/1785  and this component made possible the reduction in size of the movement and as a consequence giving rise to the birth of the singing bird box.
  It is possible that this was mainly the work of Leschot, who became a partner in the Jaquet-Droz business in 1782. Indeed, Chapuis and Gélis claim that the variable pitch whistle was the work of Leschot, however another author, Brittens, claims that the credit for its invention belongs to Henri Maillardet (1745–1815), who also joined the company in 1784, although probably Jaquet-Droz should be credited with it. Whoever it was, it is clear that by 1785 snuffbox or tabatière-sized movements were known in France, Germany and England. These mechanisms were the work of a small group of skilled and talented men laboring in Geneva, led by Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his son Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz (b. 1752) and including Leschot, Maillardet and Jacob Frisard.
  In November 1790, Pierre Jaquet-Droz died (followed by his son Henri the year later) and this logically ended the partnership with Leschot. However, Leschot continued to produce singing birds in Geneva under the old partnership name of "Jaquet-Droz & Leschot – London" (they had opened a London office and hence they marked their creations with the city's name, but they were all made in Switzerland). Leschot died in 1824, although he had previously retired years back.
  Jacob Frisard is another key name in the history and development of this artifact. Born at Villeret (Switzerland) in 1753, served his horological apprenticeship in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Then, he settled in Geneva around 1784 where he worked for Pierre and Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz and their associate Jean-Frédéric Leschot. He became a great master of singing bird technology, creating some of the most wonderful pieces sold by the Jaquet-Droz firm and contributing to their fame. His close collaboration with Leschot was to result in some of the most important technical innovations in the field; for instance, he was the inventor of the device which enable the bird to be fold back in the box once the song is finished and close the medallion or lid. Around 1800, he set up his own business and sought to show his creations to influential people, including Napoleon Bonaparte and organised an exhibition of his works in Zurich in 1809, but his efforts remained fruitless. In the early years of the 19th century, Frisard embarked on a series of journeys to exhibit his mechanical pieces throughout Europe, he eventually died in 1810 during the return journey to Geneva after a selling trip to Constantinople.
  His particular expertise was in designing and cutting the cam sets needed to produce the bird song. He made cams which were arranged in a continuous spiral, so that no break occurred from the beginning of the bird's song to the end. This was a unique feature, never repeated by any other bird box manufacturer. He certainly made many, and possibly all, the cam sets used by the Jaquet-Droz and was also employed by Frères Rochat at the outset of their production.
  Frères Rochat (Brothers Rochat). These three brothers from Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux were the sons of the master watchmaker David Rochat (1746–1812). They were: Jacques François Elisée Rochat, (1771–1836), David Frédéric Henri Rochat, (1774–1848) and Henri Samuel Rochat, (1777–1854). D
caption: Frères Rochat work with independent musical movement and center-seconds, quarter-repeating watch, ca. 1820.
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