Abracadabra! ‘Magician and Temple’ boxes are the most complex of the miniature automata produced in Switzerland in the early 19th century. Only five are known to exist and still to perform their magic. This box is one of them. - Made by Sené & Neisser in Geneva, 1807/1808, it has two changing figures behind the temple doors - a dancer and a musician - who perform while the columns turn and change colour and the music plays. - This box and its ‘pair’, now in the Sandoz Collection, are unusually contained in a case designed as a book. The spine opens to provide three compartments: the top enclosing a small watch movement, the second containing the keys to the movements, and the bottom with a ‘vinaigrette’ compartment, designed to keep a tiny sponge soaked in perfumed vinegar to revive a fainting lady or to protect her nose from unpleasant street odours. - The front cover shows a magnificent painting in enamel of a leopard and a bunch of grapes within a trailing vine border. - Estimate...