1815 Mechanical Masterpiece
In 2016, after twelve months' work, Parmigiani Fleurier revived a unique object from the Sandoz family collection, a double-barreled pistol and its songbird. This rare automaton was created, probably around 1815, by the famous Rochat Brothers using a design based on a cavalry pistol.
When the hammer is cocked, pulling the trigger releases a brightly feathered songbird out of the muzzle instead of a gunshot ball.
The bird pirouettes opens its beak, turns its head, flaps its tail and wings, all the time singing a beautiful melody, before vanishing as amazingly as it appeared.
Unfortunately, before it fell into the hands of the Parmigiani Fleurier restorers, this beautiful clockwork had sustained damage to most components.
The passage of time had affected the mechanism and, over the decades, no less than six interventions had been carried out on the artefact. Most of these were hasty and defective and ended up deforming the piece as a whole.
The Parmigiani Fleurier restorers had to start from scratch unravelling the mysteries of the mechanism one by one. They remodeled every part of the pistol from the gears to the enamel and the feathers of the bird.
Today, after that one-year revival, the masterpiece has been faithfully returned to its former form.
In 2016, after twelve months' work, Parmigiani Fleurier revived a unique object from the Sandoz family collection, a double-barreled pistol and its songbird. This rare automaton was created, probably around 1815, by the famous Rochat Brothers using a design based on a cavalry pistol.
When the hammer is cocked, pulling the trigger releases a brightly feathered songbird out of the muzzle instead of a gunshot ball.
The bird pirouettes opens its beak, turns its head, flaps its tail and wings, all the time singing a beautiful melody, before vanishing as amazingly as it appeared.
Unfortunately, before it fell into the hands of the Parmigiani Fleurier restorers, this beautiful clockwork had sustained damage to most components.
The passage of time had affected the mechanism and, over the decades, no less than six interventions had been carried out on the artefact. Most of these were hasty and defective and ended up deforming the piece as a whole.
The Parmigiani Fleurier restorers had to start from scratch unravelling the mysteries of the mechanism one by one. They remodeled every part of the pistol from the gears to the enamel and the feathers of the bird.
Today, after that one-year revival, the masterpiece has been faithfully returned to its former form.
