Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
A few remarks concerning makers of Singing Bird boxes of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Singing Bird boxes
The invention of thesemarvellous pieces of mechanismdates from about the middleof the eighteenth century.
When they first appearedthey were so highly praisedthat they were immediatelybought by the principalCourts of Europe, and it isonly later, at the beginning ofthe nineteenth century, thatthe very high class of peoplecould acquire the rare specimenthat came now and then onthe market.—
The characteristic of theantique singing bird snuffboxes, is that the bird, whensinging and moving its wings,opens its beak, when turningthe head. It is unfortunateto say, that modern watchmakershave not acquired theskilfulness of their predecessors,and that in modern boxesthis triple movement can nomore be obtained. This is, as amatter of fact, one of the firstmeans of distinguishing anantique bird box, from amodern one.—
Singing Bird Box
Signed “Jaquet-Droz and Leschot London”
(from an old engraving)
Actually in the collection of Mr Luis Dubois-Favre
Le Loele, Switzerland.
The discovery of thesesmall curious pieces of mechanismis due to a Swisswatchmaker whose name is
Pierre Jaquet-Droz
This wonderful artistwas born at La Chaux de Fonds(Switzerland) on the 28th ofJuly 1721. His parents, richpeasants, seeing the great dispositionsof their Child forStudy, had projected to makea clergyman of him, andconsequently sent him to studytheology at Neuchâtel.
During his holidays,which he used to spend atone of his sisters, who, havingabandoned the old industryof this city, which was lacemaking,married a watchmaker,the young Peterwas deeply interested in allmechanics, and spent all histime working at his sister’sworkshop. He soon becameso industrious that everybodyinduced him to leave Theologyand become a watchmaker.
His improvement astonishedeven the oldest andvery best workmen, and hesoon became their master.
It was about the year1752, the year of his marriage,that he made hisfirst singing bird,—in agold snuff box, the birdappearing and singing whenopening the box to takesnuff.—
His fame became souniversal, that in 1758 hewas summoned by the Kingof Spain, for whom heworked, and made such marvellousautomata that theSanta Inquisition, at acertain time wanted tocondemn him as a “Sorcier,”a very terrible charge atthat time.
Pierre Jaquet-Droz Henri Louis Jaquet-Droz
From a