North Coast Imports, Inc.

I was able to see this display at the Frick last Summer. There are some really great historical examples of horology. There are some very early pieces on display, including a couple French-Revolution era pieces with " Decimal Time. " Check out the website , there are a few great videos there with lectures on early clocks.

I love visiting "TrumpeterMan" and his shop and personal collection of fantastic Black Forest and Viennese artifacts! He maintains an astounding collection of Black Forest Trumpeter Clocks, Flute Clocks, Carillon Clocks, musical Vienna Regulators, Picture Frame Clocks (with animation and music), Whistling Bird Automata, Musical Chairs (real carved ones), Cuckoo Clocks... I mean, it's really unbelievable! Here, he cares for the heritage and Golden Age of the Black Forest Clock Industry. I was able to take some snapshots of his shop and collection, and he has a YouTube channel .

Dug North has a writeup on the Musical Mystery House in Wiscasset, Maine   It's an old video, but it features some whistling automata like the bird cage, bird box and whistling man that are available through North Coast Imports! Address for the Musical Mystery House: Musical Wonder House 16-18 High Street Wiscasset, ME 04578 Hours: Memorial Day Weekend through Halloween Monday through Saturday, from 10AM - 5PM and Sunday Noon - 5 PM Web site: http://www.musicalwonderhouse.com/

Here's a really interesting piece, again from Dug North's inestimable blog . The monkey is shaving!  It's really a complicated movement, similar to a Black Forest dumpling eater ( or rat eater ) but more colorful.  I wish there were pictures of the clock too!

There's a fantastic article in the New York Times about the Morris Museum in New Jersey .  A musicologist draws connections between an 1877 Swiss music box there with Puccini's Madam Butterfly. Even now few visitors spend much time in the room where the Swiss music boxes are displayed. Yet, being a musicologist, I lingered there alone last January as my children ran ahead. I kept listening to one box in particular, a harmoniphone from around 1877, equipped with a reed organ and able to play six Chinese tunes from a cylinder.   Confused at first, I suddenly realized that I had stumbled on the key to a musicological mystery many decades old. Scholars have long known that Puccini used Chinese tunes in his  opera  “Turandot” (set in China and left incomplete on Puccini’s death in 1924). But they have been puzzled by the origins of two “Japanese” tunes in his “Madama Butterfly” (set in Japan and first performed in 1904). What I had found were Chinese sour...

Here's an interesting piece. Via Dug North . The gilded robed goddess standing atop the marble base has her arms outstretched. The hand of her right arm points to the hour, and the left hand points to the minutes, which are delineated in 5-minute increments. The gilding contrasts most beautifully with the blue enameled backdrop behind the goddess. The platform escapement movement works perfectly, translating the clockworks through a clever linkage to the two arms, which when they reach their uppermost point fall dramatically to the lower starting position.

As always, we're scouring the internets to find you the most interesting postings of fascinating automata! [via Kugelbahn ] [via io9 ]

From the Blackbird journal : Driven by a key-wound spring, the monk walks in a square, striking his chest with his right arm, raising and lowering a small wooden cross and rosary in his left hand, turning and nodding his head, rolling his eyes, and mouthing silent obsequies. From time to time, he brings the cross to his lips and kisses it. After over 400 years, he remains in good working order. Tradition attributes his manufacture to one Juanelo Turriano, mechanician to Emperor Charles V. The story is told that the emperor's son King Philip II, praying at the bedside of a dying son of his own, promised a miracle for a miracle, if his child be spared. And when the child did indeed recover, Philip kept his bargain by having Turriano construct a miniature penitent homunculus. [via Boing Boing ]

The Badisches Landmuseum at Karlsruhe has an excellent website where you can listen to some exceptionally rare and fascinating mechanical musical instruments and musical clocks. Here you can listen to a Musical cabinet by the Veith-Langenbucher company, Augsburg, circa 1620... or an Elephant Clock, c. 1760, Clock case: Antoine Foullet, Mechanism: Tibeauville-Lamy... or an Apollo Clock, c. 1780... or a Chest with Flute Mechanism, c. 1804, Davrainville workshop, Paris. The website has this to say about the Musical Chest: After Napoleon was crowned Emperor he is said to have commissioned this model and given it to the Duchess of Bordeaux. The metal pin roller, also known asa cob, has eight melodies by Joseph Haydn which he specifically composed for this mechanical instrument. I wish there were better pictures available to post, but the sound files are definitely worth checking out!

This is a beautiful piece that deserves to be blogged about: From The British Museum : Description Automaton in the form of a 'nef' or ship table ornament. Gilded brass hull with embossed decoration of the sea with waves and monsters. Three masts with yard arms carrying furled cloth sails. At the top of each mast a metal pennant. Wire rigging ropes and waxed thread ratlines. On the main deck eight figures each with a sword. A small clock is mounted at the base of the main mast, showing hours and minutes on a silver dial with coloured enamel floral motifs In the crows' nests of the main mast sailors strike the hours and quarters on inverted bells. Beneath the main mast heralds and Electors automatically process before an Emperor seated beneath a canopy with a double-headed eagle of the Holy Roma Empire. On the rear deck, two painted figures with swords. The bowsprit contains a wheel-lock canon which fired automatically. A further ten cannons are arranged around the hull. Wit...

"Memento Mori" is a reminder of mortality. Our " All Are Mine " clock is an excellent modern example that is the result of a long tradition of clockmaker artisans who remind us that life is short, and all things must pass. This clock tells us a story. In the upper left part of the clock, you'll see a rich man (with his bags of money and fine suit). Just above the 12:00 position, there is a carving of a king, and to his right there is a carved figure of a monk. Underneath the dial are carved representations of the young and the old; and at the bottom you can see the world. The clock bears the inscription, Alle sind mein , or "All Are Mine." Whether you are a rich person, royalty, a man of the church, young and old, all around the world, Death will eventually come to collect you. At the top, astride the foliott balance, the personification of the End of Life swings to collect his harvest. Along with my previous post , here are more very fine exam...

Here's a very interesting piece that recently sold at the Antiquorum Auctions . Perfect for all of you Steampunks and Goths, this piece is nearly 400 years old! This is a very interesting fusee with chain, verge escapement, and plain steel two-arm balance without spring. From the Watchismo Blog : During the first minute, the skull's expression seems to smile, the second minute it seems to laugh, the next appears to scream and finally, the jaws snap shut, as if the skull were trying to bite something. At the same time, one of the snakes slowly sinks back down into one of the eye sockets, while the other slowly comes out of the other eye, before retracting suddenly, as the first snake again springs out from its eye-socket. And to view the time, just open up the skull cap! It sold recently for $135,000. Designed & built in 1610 by Nicolaus Schmidt der Junger (Augsburg, Germany) as a skull set on two crossed shinbones and mounted on a gilt brass tripod, the hinged skull cap (r...

It is an exciting time at North Coast Imports! We are very pleased with the new additions to our collection. Check out this beautiful piece from our master carver Christophe : This was inspired by a rare antique clock - and we have the original in our /museum collection! Of course the new clock is larger, more elaborate, and MUSICAL with a large 36-note Swiss-made music box mechanism. A true collectors' item!

Via the Automaton Blog ... ...from an exhibition by artist Juan Pablo Cambariere. The Ethiopian Caterpillar from Hodinkee on Vimeo . ...from Henri Maillardet , circa 1820.

We're slowly adding to our online Museum! This is a photo, video, and descriptive website dedicated to the history of Horology and significant mechanical devices. Some of the clocks are part of the North Coast Imports collection and are available for sale, and some of the pieces are owned by our friends. We just wanted to take an opportunity to make the pictures and information on these fine clocks and watches available to the general public. Check back often, and you'll see the online virtual collection grow all of the time! Check it out at www.NorthCoastImports.com/museum

Via Make ...comes this amazing video of an x-ray trip through a barnacle-encrusted lump from a 17th century shipwreck. It reveals the workings of a very sophisticated, gorgeous watchwork mechanism inside. The researchers (from National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh) who used this x-ray technology are excited about the prospects of using it on future, similarly encrusted underwater finds. Via Nature : The watch was found on a wreck believed to be the Swan — a small warship that sank off the west coast of Scotland during the English Civil War. She formed part of Oliver Cromwell's forces that attacked the Royalist stronghold of Duart Castle in Mull, UK, but succumbed to a violent gale on 13 September 1653. The resulting reconstruction of the watch shows plenty of decorative touches and exquisite attention to detail. The top and bottom plates are held together by square-section Egyptian tapered pillars, first used around 1640. Other parts of the mechanism are engraved with a floral des...

Here's a great organ clock at one of our favorite museums in Triberg - the Heimatmuseum. There is even a zither player!

From Automata Blog : Here is a book on vintage automata that covers the many types of automata and some of the most prominent makers of the past. The book is no longer in print, but can easily be ordered used .

Here's something interesting. The Black Forest clockmakers of long ago had senses of humor. We've already featured an antique clock where a carved figure of a soldier that was eating rats. Black Forest and early German clockmakers loved to illustrate their daily lives. Check out our "All Are Mine" clock which tells a story with the figure of Death swinging his scythe. Here's something even darker; and a more intimate illustration of the wicked behavior of a young boy. This is a miniature Sorg-Uhr , with strike and alarm, Black Forrest mid. 19th Century. Enamel dial and brass fret. Wooden plates holding the brass clockwork. The first of these types of clocks were made by the Lord Mayor and clockmaker Sorg in Neustadt/Schwarzwald. [via Van Dreven Antiquair ]

Our friend Bill Maier has recently started his own blog to document his impressive collection of rare, antique "Vienna" Regulator Timepieces. Here's a particularly stellar example from his collection: Gilded bronze skeletonized laterndluhr by Fertbauer, C. 1810. Overall height 67". Seconds beating, knife edge suspension riding on a gimbal. The gimbal is held by two L shaped brackets through the front plate of the movement, typical Fertbauer design, sweep seconds with sub dials of minutes, hours, and date. Stay tuned for more input from this great collection! [via ViennaRegulators.org ]