North Coast Imports, Inc.

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 .

Our dealer in Ohio is planning a remarkable Holiday Event! Doctor Rudolf's Magical Musical Clockwork Promenade  will be an Open House with a continuous concert of mechanical music, refreshments, story tellers for children, and fantastic holiday shopping opportunities. In addition to the clockwork marvels always on display at Suburban Clock, we will have exhibits of special and rare antique music boxes, orchestrions, player pianos, organ clocks, and more! Come to Dr. Rudolf's Magical Musical Clockwork Promenade!  at Suburban Clock on November 22-23 for some hot cider, a music box concert, a story, and get your holiday shopping done early. We're sure to have something for everyone on your list! Visit  www.SuburbanClock.com  or the Facebook event page  for more information and directions to our store. Here are a couple videos of newly restored, antique organ clocks that will be on display. These are exceptionally rare and worth the opportunity to se...

Our followers who appreciate clocks are also often lovers of automata and early robots. There is a great article at The Smithsonian Magazine on a short history of robot birds. There's also a great preceding post on the history of the cuckoo clock.  We at North Coast Imports have often pointed out the importance of the development of the cuckoo clock and it's eventual ancestral relation to the modern computer. Be sure to check out our website at www.NorthCoastImports.com/museum for a wealth of information on the history of clocks in general.  The Smithsonian article cites the work of Archytas of Tarentum (c. 350 B.C.) which included a mechanical wooden dove and flying, and of course the famous 18th Century automata from France and Switzerland.   [via  The Smithsonian Magazine ]

Here's a very interesting mechanism - especially the singing bird device. You can see a better video below and can hear the birds chirping. The clock was recently built by a retired hydrogeologist Richard Pim , who spent his long career bringing water to arid farmlands in Saudi Arabia and Nepal. [via Daily Mail ]

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/

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...

Regular followers of this blog know that I like to repost movies and descriptions of old mechanical automata.  There's a nice little collection of reposted videos over at io9 that's worth checking out.

Schiffer LTD . has just released a new book on the subject of Black Forest Horology. It promises to be a lovely book with great pictures and information on very rare clocks. You'll probably recognize a few clocks that have been featured here on GermanClocks.org, as well as our online museum at www.NorthCoastImports.com/museum . Pre-order Rare and Unusual Black Forest Clocks, by Justin Miller at the author's website.

Here's a great video from the VdS (Black Forest Clock Association) These are advance techniques for adjusting and fine-tuning your music box mechanism. Please be sure to pay careful attention to the video when making any adjustments, and remember that ALL of these adjustments should be VERY VERY small. All wire-bending and tweaking should be done a hair's width at a time. Be careful not to force anything or to bend anything too far.

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...

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

We're adding new photos and video footage every day. This way you can see more of the very fine details in our timepieces. Still, nothing compares to seeing them in person. Contact us to find a dealer in your area today!

Here's a snippet from one of our favorite television shows of all time:

via Cabaret Mech Theather

The Museum Speelklok was on my list to visit on my last trip to Europe, but unfortunately we couldn't fit it in. We'll definitely try hard to make it next time! Here's a great video. It looks like they have an outstanding collection of all things horological and mechanically musical! Check out the violinola orchestrion! Organ clocks of course... Wow.

Here's a new book, recommended by Dug North at the Automata Blog : This unique book traces the evolution of singing birds from antiquity to modern times, with particular attention to the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the "Golden Age" of mechanical singing birds - Jaquet-Droz, Leschot and Rochat were the most famous artists of this period - the first part of the book deals with the transformation of singing birds during the Renaissance period into an instrument of bird imitation during the 17th and 18th centuries - rich color iconography of subjects selected from museums and private collections all over the world, with several yet unpublished pieces (over 500) - an indispensable reference for collectors, specialists and for those as yet unacquainted.

Robot Drummer, made from birch plywood and HiTec Servo's. Utilizes Highly Liquid MD24 midi to servo controller. Created by Steve Averill VIdeo produced by RakerShine Utilizes the famous CamRaker.

We just added a new YouTube video of our Great Forest Cuckoo Clock (8399) . Be sure to check it out. This is a very rare piece that includes the exquisite 72-note, 3-tune, Swiss-made music mechanism. This clock is a true work of art with stunning carvings along with the mechanical musical instrument.