Singing Bird Watch, by Jean Hillaire Bassereau

An image of Singing Bird Watch. Bassereau, Jean Hillaire, watchmaker (French, d. 1806, Paris, Colmar). Gold case enamelled in dark and pale blue, the top having a circular hinged panel decorated in painted enamel with a bird perched on a tree in a landscape. The watch has a singing bird automaton which springs up when the hinged panel is open. The watch face is visible through a circular aperture in the back of the case. The maker of the movement was Hillaire Bassereau, and is inscribed 'Hilre Bassereau n. 532, Int Et Fect.'. Marks on the case: (1) Maker's mark JS or IS with a pellet above and below within a lozenge. (2) Assay mark for a second standard gold 1798-1809. (3) Exercise mark for medium-sized gold and silver 1798-1809. (4) An illegible mark with a 2 on the right side. (5) Impressed mark: 150. (6) Dealer's scratch mark: 55041. Gold dial, steel hands, blued, gold and enamel case, height 7.3 cm, width 6.2 cm, depth 1.9 cm, circa 1798-1809. The case bears the Paris assay and excise marks for 1798-1809. The movement is a little earlier than the case, probably about 1790.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Singing Bird Watch. Bassereau, Jean Hillaire, watchmaker (French, d. 1806, Paris, Colmar). Gold case enamelled in dark and pale blue, the top having a circular hinged panel decorated in painted enamel with a bird perched on a tree in a landscape. The watch has a singing bird automaton which springs up when the hinged panel is open. The watch face is visible through a circular aperture in the back of the case. The maker of the movement was Hillaire Bassereau, and is inscribed 'Hilre Bassereau n. 532, Int Et Fect.'. Marks on the case: (1) Maker's mark JS or IS with a pellet above and below within a lozenge. (2) Assay mark for a second standard gold 1798-1809. (3) Exercise mark for medium-sized gold and silver 1798-1809. (4) An illegible mark with a 2 on the right side. (5) Impressed mark: 150. (6) Dealer's scratch mark: 55041. Gold dial, steel hands, blued, gold and enamel case, height 7.3 cm, width 6.2 cm, depth 1.9 cm, circa 1798-1809. The case bears the Paris assay and excise marks for 1798-1809. The movement is a little earlier than the case, probably about 1790.

Image data

Accession Number: M.7 & A-C-1948
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/27.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Michael Jones
Image height: 1025 pixels
Image width: 826 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Filesize: 741.53kB
Exposure time: 1/180
ISO Speed: 200
Fnumber: 27/1

Key words

18th Century 19th Century automated automaton Bassereau birds blue enamel enamelled Fitz_AA French gold Jean Hillaire Bassereau mechanical pocket watch singing singing bird timepiece watch

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Singing Bird Watch, by Jean Hillaire Bassereau"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-3130071066 Accessed: 2024-12-19 00:33:55

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-3130071066
            |title=Singing Bird Watch, by Jean Hillaire Bassereau
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-19 00:33:55|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-206751

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa37/m_7_20_26_20A_C_1948_1_201507_mfj22_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Singing Bird Watch"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Singing Bird Watch, by Jean Hillaire Bassereau</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>