ANTIQUE SILVER & ENAMEL ART DECO MUSICAL CIGARETTE & SINGING BIRD BOX

ANTIQUE SILVER & ENAMEL ART DECO MUSICAL CIGARETTE & SINGING BIRD BOX

Circa 1930

Height: 2 inches /5 cm
Width: 5½ inches / 14 cm
Depth: 3½ inches / 9 cm
Stock number: GD1609/0124
Price: £12,950

A rare and exquisite silver and enamel Art Deco musical cigarette and singing bird box. The singing bird with good multitone feathered plumage with highlights in red, yellow and blue, moving beak, tailfeather, flapping wings and turning in-sync to the continuous and melodic birdsong, rising through chased and pierced gilt grille, bird-form centrum, matt gilt bird lid interior, actuated by pull to the side. The separate musical movement within the case playing the rondo theme from the Fledermaus waltz by Strauss, from the single-air cylinder Cruendet movement, actuated from hidden start/stop pin in the cigarette compartment lid. The lined interior for cigarettes with matching matt gilt interior, within the stunning high-Art Deco case of rectangular form, with twin ovals with turquoise enamel ground and chased diamond-form gilt centres, one of which is the bird lid, all framed by ever decreasing alternate white enamel and tooled silver bands, the widths and ends of the case with matching design and with oblong centres, cigarette lid with plain raised thump grip, the underside with matt gilt finish, captive musical movement winding key and singing bird winding spindle, all raised upon four elegant silver bracket feet.

Marked to the underside ‘L’Exquisite, Sterling’ this all-silver cased example has the ever-sought after musical feature, a compartment which can be used for not just cigarettes but perhaps your most prized jewellery.