The Only Pair of Matching Singing Bird Pistols

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In the late 18th and early 19th century the wealthy aristocrats of Europe often collected small automatons. These were clockwork robots, decedents of the hour-striker clocks of Renaissance Europe. One of the most popular styles consisted of birds who flapped their wings and sung. They were originally mounted in cages as an attempt at realism. Styles changed and the little birds popped up everywhere, including the barrel of bejeweled gold pistols and the only matching pair by Freres Rochat recently were auctioned at Christie's

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Clockwork-powered automatons(see previous) were quite the rage in the late 18th Century, Jaquet Droz, both the man and the house, were quite famous for them. But fashions change and with the exception of a brief revival in the house of... Read More

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This page contains a single entry by Aaron Macks published on July 12, 2011 6:28 PM.

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