Image: Singing Bird Box by Bontems

Description: Singing bird box model nº 11 by the reputed French house Bontems, circa 1890. Fitted with a going-barrel movement. The beautiful and delicately crafted full-bodied bird with spiral legs exhibits multi-coloured layered feathered plumage with predominant tones of green and red complemented with also green, red, orange and blue iridescent hummingbird feathers, giving as a result a well-combined palette of colours. They were dressed by hand so no two birds look exactly alike. The birds made by Bontems in this period are the most detailed and proportionate they ever made. It goes up and down, moving bone beak, wings and tailfeather to continuous realistic birdsong, rising through finely pierced and tooled gilt grille. Plain polished silver gilt matt finished lid interior, while the exterior shows a pair of hand-engraved birds, foliage and floral decoration framed by a plain oval border, in highly polished tortoiseshell case with a small hinged compartment to rear, matching gilt start/stop button to front-right. The top interior of the case has been shaved, getting a semi-transparent look with a rich variety of tones and shades of honey, brown and amber colours, which allows to see part of the mechanism in action. Measurements: 10 cm by 6.70 cm by 3.10 cm.
Title: Singing Bird Box by Bontems
Credit: Own work
Author: Jafd88
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedication
License: CC0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en
Attribution Required?: No