Musée International d'Horlogerie (MIH) Part 7

Musée int. d'horlogerie (MIH), La Chaux-de-Fonds. – Part 7

After a nice lunch, we are walking back towards the museum.

After a nice lunch, we are walking back towards the museum.

We see an interesting shop, selling all kind of watches and watch related tools etc. Worth a visit.

The owner is a trained watchmaker and he is interesting to talk to. My father bought a few small tools for his workshop where he repairs Moret clocks.

Back at the museum, we treat ourselves to a "Robocoffee".

There is a currently a special exhibition in the MIH about robots, which inspired them to set up a booth called "Robosnacks". You can order an apple, coffee, popcorn etc and get it served by a robot arm.

We are entering now a section of the museum that displays mainly automata.

Wall with two paintings featuring automata.

"The musical monkeys".The tableau shows an orchestra of musical monkeys featuring cardboard figures. A horlogical movement allows the hours and minutes to be displayed  on the clock face. A music box able to play 6 melodies accompanies the animated scene. Tharin, Paris.around 1860.

Would't this make a nice addition to your home?

Maybe this one is more to your liking…

In the late 18^th century, certain striking watches were embellished with automata. These gadgets amused the public of the period. 

Clock with automata. Signed "Deo Iuvante Construuxit Hoc Opus Emil Wick". The lower part shows a scene in the old part of the city of Basel, animated by 30 figures which are moving while performing tasks. On the lefts side of the dial, a figure beats the hours and half hours on a bell. On the right side of the dial, a skeleton – symbol of the passing time – turns his hourglass that he holds in the hand. A rooster sitting on top of the dial moving his feathers crowns everything.  You should see this in real, with al the motion going on –amazing!

Magician build by Jean-David Maillardet and his son Julien-Auguste. Presented to the English King, George IV in 1826.

The little magician performs the same feats as his larger counterpart. It is amusing to note that if one asks the latter to work without having first inserted a question into the mechanisms, he shakes his head. The little magician reacts differently: a trapdoor opens in the automation and a devil jumps out. Those who cheat get their punishment!

View from the back on the complex mechanism.

Neuchatel clock, Louis XV style. This clock is one of the great masterpieces of Pierre Jaquet-Droz. It has a chiming mechanism and a set of flutes. Its cabinet of Boulle marquetry is inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The door grating of solid bronze represents a scene from the fable "The Fox and the Stork"

View of the back side with bells and pendulum.

Learning's from part 7:  pictures are a very inadequate form of presenting these fascinating works. I will have to take sound files and movies the next time I go there….

End of Part 7

Stay tuned…more to come during the course of the next few days…