Exceptional Horological Sale Celebrat...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Apr 24, 2004

LOT 92

The Metronome ? A Mechanical Conductor French, second half of the 17th century. Probably unique and highly important wooden portable metronome automaton.

CHF 100,000 - 150,000

EUR 63,000 - 95,000 / USD 78,000 - 117,000

Sold: CHF 80,500

C. Sculpted and polychrome wooden animated figure of a monk standing behind a pulpit, rectangular base with hinged door on the back revealing the movement and two shelves, on the left panel three levers on a brass plate for running/stopping, tempo, and the speed respectively, the plate also engraved with the coat of arms of the Diocese of Tours. The monk conductor, in light brown robes, holds a baton in each hand and beats the rhythm on the pulpit according to the program.M. rectangular, solid iron plates, weight driven, 4-wheel train, the tempo governed by a pinned cylinder with pins engaging sliding lever pulling cords connected to the hands and the head of the conductor, fly governor with 4 wings, start/stop by a lever engaging the fly, the speed regulated by different pressure applied to the 3rd wheel arbor.Dim. height 1.55 m, base width 41 cm, figure 91 cm


LOADING IMAGES
Click to full view
Image
Grading System
Grade:
Case: -
Movement: 3

Good
Dial: -

Notes

From the collection of Annette Beyer Provenance.: Diocese of Tours Chartreux Monastery of St. Hugon, near Rochette (France) Foucou Collection, Paris Annette Beyer Collection of Automata, Zurich. Literature. "Histoire de la Boite a Musique" by Alfred Chapuis, Lau-sanne, 1955, p. 124-25. The metronome is a sort of mechanical Kappellmeister; one might call it a "measure beater", to use the scornful term which good musicians sometimes apply to a conductor whose skill is limited to marking the measure. In a primitive form the instrument was known to the Arabs as early as the Ninth Century. In 1730, The Mémoires of the French Academy of Sciences make reference to an apparently well perfected form of metronome by one Loullin. The modern metronome, as we know it, was invented by Nepomuk Winkel in 1815. This automaton is one of only two portable metronome automata known to have survived from such an early period. The other is in the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale of Milan; its conductor is in the form of a devil, however it is not a free-standing figure. The present automaton beats time with one or both arms while moving his head. Most likely it stood in the Cathedral of Tours and was used to help the choir keep the correct time. It is remarkable that so early an automaton was already so sophisticated. It could not only beat time with its right or left hand or both, but its tempo could also be regulated. An interesting French inscription is on the brass plate: "This metronome was moved to the Chartreux Monastery of St. Hugon, near Rochette, restored by François Pournier de Chambéry, born on March 3, 1838, proficient in the Arts, on September 16, 1898".