Animated figures and boxes were first known in ancient Greece. They were used as tools, toys, religious idols and prototypes for demonstrating basic scientific principles. Many were powered by water. In the mid-8th century, the first wind-powered automata were built in Baghdad. Throughout the middle ages, many experiments were created to amuse the Kings, Czars, and Emperors to garner favor in their courts.
At the end of the 13th century, the French had a magical walled garden with monkey marionettes, mechanized birds, fountains and an organ. Leonardo da Vinci sketched a more complex automaton around the year 1495. The design of Leonardo’s robot was not rediscovered until the 1950s. The robot could, if built successfully, move its arms, twist its head, and sit up. The most famous Italian figural automaton is the Torre dell’ Orologio located in Venice, which was built in 1499.
By the 18th century, the French, Swiss and Germans had developed well-tooled machines. A Frenchman constructed a “Digesting Duck” which ran the full gamut of its digesting track. Another automaton was capable of drawing four pictures and writing three poems, which is now at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. To amuse the Ottoman Sultan, a Belgian scientist built an automaton featuring a European soldier being mauled by a tiger.
The period 1860 to 1910 is known as “The Golden Age of Automata”. During this period, many small family based companies of Automata makers thrived in Paris. From their workshops, they exported thousands of clockwork automatons and mechanical singing birds around the world. It is these French automatons that are collected today, although now rare and expensive, they attract collectors worldwide. The main French makers were Bontems, Lambert, Phalibois, Renou, Roullet & Decamps, Theroude and Vichy.
We are pleased to be offering on February 21st two singing bird boxes. One is a Continental silver-plated box, Lot 124, and the other is a German gilt-bronze-mounted faux tortoiseshell box, Lot 123, along with a fine Swiss gold and enamel music box, by Piguet & Meylan, late 19th century, Lot 122.