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More than 150 automatons, chosen from the greatest collections in the world are color reproduced in this book with the kindful authorization of the private collectors who allowed the presentation of a complete and incomparably rich work.

360 pages
More than 900 color photos

"L'âge d'or des automates"
1848 - 1914
(The golden age of automatons)

     This  reference book for collectors and specialists will fascinate all those delighted by the charm of automatons.

It is the first book exclusively dedicated to the automatons of the 19th century.

After a short review of the automaton evolution since the older times, the author studies its privileged part in the 19th century and its close links to the Parisian life. Then he relates the evolution of seven great manufacturers and families of that time from the creation of their manufacture in the middle of the century until their decline after World War I.

Those who are particularly interested in the technique aspect of the automaton will be pleased with the chapter dedicated to the musical movement, to the mechanism andrestoration. Finally, the specialists will enjoy the pages of the catalogues of that time which are facsimile reproduced and display for the first time a substantial selection of automatons.

Reference :
LF-01
(French)

Price : EUR 95.00

AVAILABILITY :
10 copies

Weight : 2,395 g

217 pages
120 color photos
200 black-and-white pictures

"In the land of the music boxes and automatons"

In Sainte-Croix, small town in Vaudesian Jura, located about thousand meter high and near the French barrier, the manufacturing of music boxes has been carried on for more than a century despite fashions and economic crises. Attracted by the know-how of the inhabitants of this region, a creator and restaurator of automatons settled in 1973 in Bullet, neighbor town of Sainte-Croix. With his help and his aprentice, the land of music boxes has become the land of automatons too.

This book intends to pay a tribute to what the work of these artisans of dream -willing to produce objects from an aother era- was and still is , and the infant and romantic charm of which will keep on fascinating and wonder us for a long time.

376 pages, 800 photos
1 CD ROM

"Oiseaux de bonheur"
"Flights of fancy"
by Christian and Sharon Bailly

This reference book for collectors and specialists, and initiation book for the neophytes, will fascinate all those who are sensitive to the irresistible charm of the singing birds. It presents the evolution of the singing birds from Antiquity to nowadays particularly emphasizing on the singing bird of the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, that is their "golden age". It is the first book which offers that exceptionally wide range of color photos, for the authors have carefully sought and selected the most beautiful and important pieces not only from museums but from private collections too, some masterpieces of which had remained unknown until today.

Reference :
LAF-001
(French/English)


AVAILABILITY:
2 copies

Price excl.of tax:
EUR 199.05

Price incl.of tax:
EUR 210.00

Poids : 2,400 g

24 pages, 2 black-and-white engravings

"Le mécanisme du flûteur automate"(The mechanism of the automaton flutist)
by Jacques Vaucanson

Bevor he began in 1741 his long carrier as a controller of silk manufactures, Jacques Vaucanson built so famous automatons that two centuries later, the general public still remembers them and sometines persists in believing that they are preserved. The fascination they exert on the crowd because of their magic aspect, on the scientists and on curious people for their technical complexity, account for their ongoing fame.

This book includes a preface by Catherine Cardinal from the National Museum of Techniques, the Vaucanson memorandum explaining and describing the mechanism of his androïd playing the flute , an extract from the registers of the Royal Academy of Sciences, a letter Vaucanson wrote to Abbot de Fontaine, the approval of the Royal Censor and an engraving of the three improved automatons: the flutist, galoubet and tambourine player, and the digesting duck.

Reference :
LAF-002
(French/English)

AVAILABILITY :
3 copies

Price excl.of tax:
EUR 21.80

Price incl.of tax :
EUR 23.00

Weight : 155 g

Flyleaf of volume I and II

Flyleaf of volume I

Flyleaf of volume II

720 pages 2 volumes

"Le Monde des automates"
Etude historique et technique
(The world of automatons-Historical and technical study)
This reference book was written in 1928 by two specialists of automatons and reedited in 1984.

In this two-volume book of 72O pages, Alfred Chapuis and Edouard Gélis portray great automaton creators along with their mechanical characters from antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century.

Based on black-and-white photos, drawings, schemes and sketches, the authors explain how these automatons work (drawings and sketches of the mechanical parts, joints generating movement and so on.).

FIRST VOLUME

The first joint characters, primitive automatons - The school of Alexandria - The Byzantine and Muslim automatons-The hydraulic automatons - The automatons in the Middle Ages -Automatons in christian religion- TheTable clocks and plate automatons- Automatons in appartment's wallclocks - Wooden automatons- Clocks, wallclocks and fancy pieces with figurines or animated scenes - The mechanical paintings-Automaton's theaters -

SECOND VOLUME

Mechanical weather cocks - Automaton toys- Clocks and snuff boxes - Singing birds- Mechanical animals- Magician and conjuror automatons-The androïds makers- The talking machines and heads - Walking androïds and automatons -Writing and drawing androïds - Musician androïds- Fake automatons- automation and orthopaedics - Automaton and litterature..

Reference :
LF-03
(French)



AVAILABILITY :
5 copies

Price excl.of tax:
EUR 341.23

Price incl.of tax:
EUR 360.00

Weight : 5,000 g

128 pages

40 illustrations

"Dictionnaire technique et musical des boîtes à musique"(Technical and musical dictionnary of music boxes)
by Etienne Blyelle

This dictionnary is designed for antique dealers, technicians, authors, experienced or neophytecollectors.

This reference book includes, along with its alphabetical section, English terms as well, an index of lyrical works, danses, songs, an index of the associations, museums and a discography.

Reference :
LF-04
(French)

AVAILABILITY :
OUT OF STOCK

Price excl.of tax
EUR 28.43

Price incl.of tax:
EUR 30.00

Weight: 220 g

159 pages
200 color photos

A history of the robots
By Chantal Leguay

From Egypt to nowadays, from the human body to space, from the laboratories to motion pictures, robots are everywhere. If you want to discover the evolution of those remarquable machines, this book offers a clear and total vision of this univers through thematic and chronological axis.

Reference :
LF-22
(French)

Price excl. of tax :
EUR 17.95

Price incl. of tax :
EUR 19,00

408 pages

Ca 185 illustrations

"Vie artificielle,
Où la biologie rencontre l'informatique"(Artificial life, when biology meets computer sciences)
by Jean-Philippe Rennard

Life : state of what is not inert.
Artificial life: research branch destinated to precise the above definition.

This definition illustrates with humor the object of this book: a still mysterious discipline which is made of computer engineers, philosophists or biologists. It intends to reach a better understanding of life by searching and trying to reproduce its general processes. And it wants to transfer the mechanisms of live within special algorithms and artefacts (biomimetics) in an often astonishing efficient way . This book is an invitation to a fascinating trip into the heart of this discipline.You will find there the virtual universes of the cellular automatons and the "programmable material"along with ants colonies, a group of basilosaurres or evolutive robots and other purely algorithmic creatures.

Reference :
LF-05
(French)

AVAILABILITY:
4 copies

Price excl.of tax:
EUR 33.17

Price incl.of tax:
EUR 35.00

Weight: 730 g

Item reference :
LF-23
(Old French)

144 pages

150 color photos

"Sculpteur de musiques
Guido Reuge
Maître des boîtes enchantées"(Music engraver, Guido Reuge, the master of enchanted boxes)

This book deals with the love story between two people, their passion for music boxes and automatons: a human adventure in the heart of the Swiss and global industrial evolution. Besides the model characters such as Jacqueline and Guido Reuge, the passion human societies have always had towards sounds, shapes and colors as a mean of magnifying reality or to remake it artificially shall be greeted .

The subjects : The history of automatons, the life of the farmers, artisan and manufacturer of musical movements in the Jura Vaudois, the establishment of the Reuge family, Guido Reuge and the music boxes, the life of Jacqueline and Guido Reuge, the Reuge villa and its automaton collection, the current activity of Reuge Music.

Reference :
LAF-03
(French/English)

AVAILABILITY:
3 copies

Price excl.of tax:
EUR 37.91

Price incl.of tax:
EUR 40.00

Weight: 900 g

173 pages
150 black-and-white and color photos

"Les automates de Monté-Carlo"(The automatons of Monte-Carlo)
by Antoine Battaïni and Annette Bordeau

This book is an invitation to travel through the impressive automaton collection of the 18th century at the Automaton Museum in Monte-Carlo.

After the chapter dedicated to the history of automatons, the authors relate the automaton mechanisms through succeeding photographs of opened automatons, engines, parts and other gears.

Then two other chapters deal with the restoration of automatons and finally the automaton music.

Reference :
LF-06
(French)

Price :
EUR 120.00

90 pages
90 black-and-white and color photos

"Les automates"(The automatons)
by Jean Bedel

Nowadays automatons have become precious collector's objects. But they have always existed, even in the farther antiquity. The Greatest of this world, Princes and Kings were interested in them and had true automaton masterpieces built.

Everyone knows the music boxes. There were the singing birds too and even musical jewelry.Each automaton builder jealously kept his secrets . Today we can reveal how the Jacquemarts were built as well as the fabulous inventions of Vaucanson.

Largely reproduced in black-and-white and above all in color these astonishing marvels areto be found in these pages.

The photographs of this book lead us through the collections of the Baud Museum, the Automaton Museum at Neuilly sur Seine and a great number of private collectors.

Reference :
LF-07
(French)

AVAILABILITY:
2 copies

Price :
EUR 45.00

Weight : 750 g

190 pages
100 black-and-white,and color photos

"Les automates" (Automatons)
by Jean Prasteau

This large illustrated book will help you dicover the history of automatons and their very famous and facetious collectors.

So you will learn many stories about the Dukes of Burgund, Henri IV, Catherine II, Marie Antoinette and Robert-Houdin for instance.

Famous private collectors such as Jacques Damio, Maurice Sandoz, Alfred Chapuis and Edouard Gélis will relate about their relationship with their autoamtons...

Reference :
LF-08
(French)

AVAILABILITY:
OUT OF STOCK

Price :
EUR 80.00

95 pages
90 black-and-white and color photos

"Les automates"(The automatons)

by Eliane Maingot

"Les automates" by Eliane Maingot deals with the history of automatons through ages.

From Egyptian Antiquity to the 1950's, the author unveils the secrets of the mechanicl statues, the cybernetic feats, the creatures of Vaucanson, the Jaquet-Droz family, the Maillardets, Kintzing and so on ....

The author, a former antique dealer, helps us discover the marvels of the automaton's world: mechanical birds, automaton watches, mechanical paintings, automaton guns, snuffbox birds, Fabergé mechanical peacock and so on ....

Reference :
LF-09
(French)

AVAILABILITY :
3 copies

Price :
EUR 40.00

Weight : 530 g

Une collection extraordinaire
Maurice Sandoz

6 pages
15 white and black, and color photos

"Un collectionneur extraordinaire :
Maurice Sandoz"(Maurice Sandoz: An extraordinary collector)

This paper about the extraordinary collection of Maurice Sandoz is published in the magazine "Connaissance des arts".

In this paper you will find texts and photographs about the Fabergé miniature automatons, extraordianry automaton watches, birds guns, snuff boxes, magic automatons and other upmost extraordinary like this old woman walking in a perfect, natural way , leaning on two sticks.

Reference :
LF-10-1
(French)

AVAILABILITY :
OUT OF STOCK

Price :
EUR 30.00

Weight : 155 g

60 pages

38 black-and-white photos

Aesculape
Monthly published illustrated magazine of the relationships between Arts and sciences and medicine.

"Les oiseaux chantants"
(The singing birds) by Eliane Maingot

Eliane Maingot relates the history of the singing birds, the great manufacturers and their involvement in the arts and litterature.

Many photos of the most famous singing birds and some mechanical, music instruments : : birds in cage by Bontems-Reuge, bird' songs, hummingbird snuffbox by Bruguier, singing birds in cages for an oriental prince, golden cages and cages with precious stones, bushes with singing birds, guns with singing birds, with visible mechanisms, , golden stick knob with singing bird, golden mirrors with singing birds, singing lessons by Robert-Houdin....)

Reference :
LF-10
(French)

AVAILABILITY
2 copies

Price :
EUR 60.00

Weight: 155 g

412 pages

15 short stories
and a dictionary of authors

Histoires d'automates(Automaton History)
La grande Anthologie
de la science-Fiction
(The great anthology of science fiction)
"La grande Anthologie de la Science-Fiction" written by the best specialists, includes:

A reasonable choice of the best short stories

A real Encyclopedy with themes which explores each side of this litterature.

A complete range of the authors and styles, from the 1930's to nowadays.

Reference :
LF-11
(French)

AVAILABILITY :
1 copy

Price :
EUR 15.00

Weight : 190 g

32 pages
15 color photos

"Les automates"
by Charles Rickard

The points :
The automaton mechanism: a set of cames. The "automaton-oracle" of the Antiquity. The tricky automatons of the good French Kings. The Faith auxilliary automatons. Automatons, people and heart messengers...The androïds imitating man. In the 18th century the creators present their automatons. Vaucanson's duck and its pretending natural functions. At the origin of the music box: the bird song."The impressed bourgeoisie of the 19th century. The automatons pedling hope and "keys" of the great exhibitions. A family of great automaton builders: the Roullet-Decamps.The robots rescue to computers. Where are they seen: at the Musée des Arts-et-Métiers, at the Museum of Neuilly, in Monaco, in Neuchâtel, at the antique dealer's.

Reference :
LF-12
(French)

AVAIALBILITY :
OUT OF STOCK

Price :
EUR 35.00

270 pages

77 black-and-white drawings

"Les automates dans les oeuvres d'imagination"
(Automatons in imagination works) by Alfred Chapuis

In this book, Alfred Chapuis reviews the large litterature from Antiquity to nowadays and stages automatons and androïds.

This litterature, often pittoresque, naïve or subtile, kindful or tragic, sometimes becomes a philosophic symbol and great poetry.

In reality it is only the following or continuing of a whole cycle of works which goes back, through the centuries, to Antiquity, for the idea of creating an artificial being by the "homo sapiens"has kept on storming brains.

Reference :
LF-13
(French)



AVAILABILITY :
OUT OF STOCK

Price :
EUR 180.00

Weight : 380 g

200 pages
300 black-and-white, and color photos

"Polichinelle"
"La gazette des poupées, jouets et automates de collection"
Numéro 27-30(The magazine of dolls, toys and collector's automatons)

In this issue, in French and in English, three dossiers are particularly interesting..

The first deals with Alexandre Nicolas Théroude and his "Flute player" instigator and full master of the autmatons in the 19th century. The history and principle of building are explained too.

The second is entitled "The chess player of the baron Von Kempelen found". This paper gives a certain number of information about the history of the chess player, its building, its exhumation and its rediscovery.

The last article deals with the market of collector's automatons. Price list, description, choice of the pieces.

Reference :
LAF-04
(French, English)

AVAIALBILITY :
OUT OF STOCK

Price :
EUR 50.00

126 pages

18 white and black illustrations

"Automates et automatione"(Automatons and automation)
by Pierre Devaux

This book is dedicated to the automatons and robots in mechanical terms. It equally presents a panorama of all the automatic mechanisms of the machines.

Contents :
Automatons in history, the masterpieces of the 18th century, a "modern automatist" , the"robots", what is automation?, mechanical intelligence,automatic machines, electric automatons and bearings, the Nividic light, the automatic phone and the talking clock, the electric eye, the automatic plane, are we going to become automatons ?

Reference :
LF-14
(French)

AVAILABILITY:
1 copy

Price :
EUR 25.00

Weight : 95 g

128 pages

500 black-and-white, and color photos
Schemes and mechanisms

Revue : "Métiers d'Art"(Magazine:"Arts crafts)
Les arts mécaniques(Mechanical arts)

Summary :
- The instruments of mechanical music
- Restoration of a residence automatic organ
- Adresses of orchestrion manufactures
- Musical automatons and animated paintings
- The Dutch clock
- Roger and Gallet automatons
- The tympanon player
-Portraits of automaton creators
- Fair arts
- The astronomical clock of the Cathedral of Bourges
- Mechanisms and machines systems at the Musée des Arts et Métiers
-The innovations of the Vaucanson loom

Reference :
LF-15
(French)

AVAILABILITY :
OUT OF STOCK

Price :
EUR 30.00

Weight : 650 g

45 pages

57 black-and-white photos

"Automates
et musique mécanique"(Automatons and mechanical music)
Exposition du Trianon de Bagatelle
15 juin 1980 (Exhibition of Bagatelle)

This book relating to the 1980 exhibition in Bagatelle presents all the automatons and instruments of mechanical music which were then shown to the audience.

Through the history, the description and the photographs the reader will enjoy again an unforgettable time.

Reference :
LF-16
(French)

AVAILABILITY :
OUT OF STOCK

Price :
€ 40.00

192 pages
23 plates
45 black-and-white drawings

"La mécanique"(Mechanics)
by Eugène-H.Weiss

This small book from the "library of marvels"was written by a highly skilled engineer who talentuously presents things with the clarity required.He reviews all the machines, ranging from the simplest to the most sophisticated, from the lever and pulley to the Jacquard loom through the typewriter and the calculating machine.

A chapter is dedicated to animated toys and automatons. It reviews the toys of the ancient times, the modern animated toys, the combined mounting, the mechanical railways, the automatons and the modern automatons.

Besides, all through the book you will be explained the mechanical principles (movement,speed, force ...), the elementary system of the machines (pulleys, capstan, screw...), the movement transformation (rod and handle, gears, cams speed, cams, speed gearings,...) bearings, transmission shafts, tools-machines for metal work, wood,and so on...

It is therefore a book which is useful to everyone interested in automaton creation.

Reference :
LF-17
(French)

AVAILABILITY :

Price : EUR 60.00

OUT OF STOCK

Flyleaf






175 pages
105 black-and-white and color photos
1 single disc

"Au temps des boîtes à musique
des origines aux orgues de Foire"(At the times of music boxes; from the origins to Fair organs)
by Daniel Bonhôte with the collaboration of Frédy Baud

This book gives an overview of all the instruments of mechanical music through a great number of private collections and the large collections from the Baud Museum and the Museum of Art and History in Neuchâtel..

A single disc in a perfect state is delivered with the book.
While following the explanations of the book and the technical drawings you can listen to a bird song, a fluteset clock, a 1895 cylinder music part, a melodico piano, a celestina, a chordephon, automaton musicians, a music table, an Edison phonograph, a great celestial voice, singing birds in a cage, a disc part, a barrel organ, a pneumatic piano, a phonolist violina, an orchestrion and a fair organ.

The points reviewed:
- The artisan-farmer becomes a master of sounds
(Making and historical review)
-From the billionaire living room to Mimi Pinson's attic.
(The audience is passionate by mechanical music)
- Music for everyone
(Transmission sites of mechanical music)
- This happened when these mechanical instruments played.
(Instruments and historical context)
- They are still playing at the Museum of Auberson and on your disc.

Reference :
LF-18
(French)

AVAILABILITY :
2 copies

Price :
€ 75.00

Weight : 1,155 g

128 pages
103 black-and-white and color pictures

"Invisible musicians"
by Catherine Van Geel, Vinciane Feron and the collaboration of Philippe Rouillé and Henri Triquet.

Book with numerous photos and available in three languages " Invisible Musicians "offers a review of all the instruments of mechanical music, a great part of which belonging to the Triquet old collection could be admired in Paris, near the Centre Georges Pompidou.

The main points :
- Historical review of the instruments of mechanical music
- A disc history
- Mechanical music travels
-The phonograph appears
- Music in the streets
- The 1930's
- Music private rooms
- The Fair
-Music and nature
- Mechanics of the modern times
- Orchestrion symphonies
- The Juke-Boxes and the passion for life
-Tomorrow: the virtual music
-How is a card or a cylinder punched ?
-Modern making and restoration
- Mechanical music hits

Reference :
LANF-01
(French,
English,
Dutch)

AVAIALBILITY
OUT OF STOCK

Price :
EUR 80.00

Weight : 595 g

80 pages
105 color pictures
Technical drawings

"Boîtes à musique"(Music boxes)
by Gilbert Bahl

This book is intended for collectors to choose, restore and appreciate antique and modern music boxes.

The book relates the history of the manufacturing of music boxes, from the invention of the first genuine music box in 1796 by a Swiss watch manufacturer, Antoine Favre. This book also reviews the dramatic evolution of the manufacturing of music boxes from the first type of cylinder box followed in the 1880's by the more sophisticated with a deeper sound, both cheaper to produce and offering a wider range of tunes. " Boîtes à musique" reviews the main points of the technical development, gives information about the main manufacturers of music bxes and describes as well the evolution of fashion regarding the size, the shape and the style of the box.

The main points :
The cylinder music box, the disc music box, how to understand your music box, fancy music boxes, taking care of the music box, collect music boxes, models of disc music boxes, the manufacturers of music boxes, useful adresses, bibliography, collections to see.

Reference :
LF-19
(French)

AVAILABILITY :
1 copy

Price :
EUR 35.00

252 pages
700 black-and-white, and color photos

"L'âge d'or des jouets"(The golden age of toys)
by Jac Remise and Jean Fondin

This book dealing with toys designed between 1850 and 1914 includes a long chapter about mechanical toys, automatons and children toys with mechanical music

The main points :
The developping of traditional toys: first-joy toys, the miniaturized mens' world, war for a joke, family life for model girls, paper toys and parlour games.
The magicians' springtime: Automatons and small mechanical toys, steam machines, boats, trains, automobiles, airships and airplanes, the cinema ancestors, musical toys, electricity serving toys.

The automatons chapter presents a certain number of automatons manufactured by the greatest French manufacturers:( Vichy, Decamps and so on....) ranging from the mechanical peacock, animal automatons, a drawing clown, walking dolls and musician automatons.

The chapter dealing with the musical toys presents automaton organists, music boxes with handle, symphonions, musician automatons, talking dolls with wax cylinder, singing birds and so on ...

Reference :
LF-20
(French)

AVAILABILITY :
OUT OF STOCK

Price :
EUR 95.00

240 pages
720 color photos

"Boîtes"(Boxes)
by Maria Grazia Branchetti

This book completes the various books about the music boxes for it offers the study of the material typology, terminology, frequent ornament indexes or original decorations characteristic of the visible surfaces.

It analyzes the destination of the object at the time of its creation, the associated social context, the era of its manufacturing, its artistic value.

Analyzed points :
The box and time: Antiquity, Medieval Europe, the 18th century and the charm of exotism, the development of snuff boxes, 19th and 20th century : A key period.
Routes and images : for socail life, useful for home and travel, at the office or the living room, boxes and caskets, for sugared and flavoured secrets, snuff boxes, for cigars and cigarettes, matches carrier, industrial boxes, Orient boxes.

Reference :
LF-21
(French)

AVAILABILITY :
1 copy

Price :
EUR 65.00

128 pages
250 black-and-white, and color photos

"English enamel boxes, from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Centuries"
by Susan Benjamin

Contents :
History and Techniques of enamelling, Manufacturing Processes, York House, Battersea, London, Birmingham, South Staffordshire, Liverpool, Continental Painted Enamels, Fakes, Forgeries and Replicas, Decline and Revival of a Craft, Collecting.

Reference :
LA-01
(Anglais)

AVAILABILITY :
OUT OF STOCK

Price :
EUR 35.00