A heavy bronze base with elaborate Egyptian style raised designs, four hinged handles, and square-edged extended feet displays a velvet-covered surface from which is rising an unusual tree whose leaves are mother of pearl shells, enhanced with tiny white petals. Posed in the center is a multi-colored mechanical bird and on other branches three other sedentary colorful feathered birds. There is a plaque below the winding hole that reads Ch. bontems, Fabricant, Rue de Clery 72, Paris. The bird turns its head side to side and flutters its tail, each independently of the other. Its beak opens and closes. The bird tweets, trills and chirps.
Historical References: The early model is a rare form of presentation by Bontems, both in the use of bronze urn (although he was best known to use porcelain urns) and in the use of mother of pearl tree leaves. The bird sounds are exceptional, an audible proof of the early story told about Bontems that for years he went to the Fontainebleau forests before dawn to listen to the trills of the nightingale and other birds. There he would work, with his file and cams alongside, until the matched bird song was perfected. Circa 1870.