A good satin-ripple polished and tooled gilt bronze singing bird box, by Marguerat,

Circa 1920,

Going-barrel movement,

Extraordinary case design brought to you by the case wizard Marguerat...

When wound and start/stop slide moved to the right, the bird rises  through chaste gilt metal grille of good tooling complexity, moving metal beak, wings and body from side-to-side to continuous synchronised birdsong. 

The bird with multicoloured feathered plumage in grey, yellow, red, black, head mostly with green irridescent coverage for the banding effect, polished lid interior in straight rectangular case with magnificent satin ripple effect achieved by polishing the bronze at various angles at the same time.

4in. wide, 2.5/16in. deep, 1.3/4in. high - (10.2 x 5.8 x 4.5cm)

Point of interest -

It took quite some time before we figured out how this case was engineered to achieve this wonderful effect.  On near inspection, it is clear a great mount of polishing was undertaken to get the two-tone shadowing, whilst on close inspection, most of the darkest sectors are tooled. 

Once sold, we will be having great diffeculty getting one like this again.