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An unusual singing bird box by Frères Rochat, ca. 1810. The bird is shown in a tiny cage, not concealed inside the box as usual. A singing bird box (boîte à oiseau chanteur in French) is a box, usually rectangular-shaped, which contains within a miniature automaton singing bird concealed below an oval lid and activated by means of an operating lever.
A singing bird box made about 1890 by Bontems. Bird dressed with iridescent hummingbird feathers and case made of tortoiseshell. The famous magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871) was known for creating automata for his stage shows.
At Papa Roujol's, Robert-Houdin learned the details to many of the mechanical tricks of the time as well as how to improve them. From there, he built his own mechanical figures, like a singing bird, a dancer on a tightrope, and an automaton doing the cups and balls. His most acclaimed automaton was his writing and drawing figure.
Cuckoo clock, a so-called Jagdstück ("hunt piece"), Black Forest, c. 1900, Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 2006-013. A cuckoo clock is a type of clock, not typically pendulum driven, that strikes the hours with a sound like a common cuckoo call and has an automated cuckoo bird that moves with each note.
Blaise Bontems (15 March 1814 Le Ménil - 1893) was a French specialist in the manufacture of automaton singing birds and the first of a dynasty of automaton manufacturers, which included his son Charles Jules and his grandson Lucien. [1] Bontems' birds were famous for the realism of their song. [2] [3] [4]
Singing bird box; Shanghai Gallery of Antique Music Boxes and Automata; The Musical Museum, Brentford, London, England has several examples by makers including Nicole Frères, Regina and Popper which may be seen and heard.
The automata of Jaquet-Droz are considered to be some of the finest examples of human mechanical problem solving. Three particularly complex and still functional dolls, now known as the Jaquet-Droz automata , are housed at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (art and history museum) in Neuchâtel, Switzerland .
There was also a fourth automaton, called "the Cave", which was a big diorama with a palace carved on a rock, gardens and figurines, which has disappeared. The four automata The automata were designed and built by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz and Jean-Frédéric Leschot as advertisement and entertainment toys designed to improve ...