(Geneva) - Antiquorum Edition

s, the publishing division of the world leading watch auctioneer, Antiquorum, is pleased to announce the release of a new publication: "Flights of Fancy: Mechanical Singing Birds", by Sharon and Christian Bailly.

Vibrant and informative for collectors, "Flights of Fancy: Mechanical Singing Birds", by Sharon and Christian Bailly, is a 380-page hard-cover color volume, printed in a bilingual French/English edition. It provides an overview of the long and fascinating story of mechanical singing birds, beginning with the fascinating automata and pseudo-automata of Antiquity. It goes on to study the various forms singing birds took during the course of history, as subjects of myth and legend, as playthings for the aristocracy during the Renaissance, and as imitators of the live birds that sang to entertain their owners, during the 17^th and 18^th centuries. It accords particular importance to the "golden age" of mechanical singing birds, a period that stretched from the end of the 18^th century to the middle of the 19^th, when bird automata reached the height of their beauty and sang the most enchantingly.

"Flights of Fancy" thoroughly examines this rich and fascinating period, including much important and never-before published biographical and historical information on master makers such as the Jaquet-Droz, Leschot, Frisard, the Rochats, and the Bruguiers. An indispensable reference work for specialists and collectors, it is also an exceptionally beautiful book whose numerous color photographs of rare and important singing bird pieces – it includes over 400 color and over 100 black and white illustrations - will be appreciated by novices and connoisseurs alike.

As another "first", the book is accompanied by a CD-ROM (for both PC and Mac) containing visually attractive overviews of the history of mechanical singing birds, with a special animated technical section presenting and explaining mechanisms in motion. The crowning touch is a fabulous "gallery" of singing birds which give a very special kind of "private performance" on the reader’s computer screen, as films and recordings of some of the world’s most extraordinary singing bird pieces are seen and heard.

Flights of Fancy: Mechanical Singing Birds
2001 Edition - ISBN 2-940019-28-2
Retail price: SFr. 300[Postage & handling per book: Switzerland = SFr. 7 / Europe = SFr. 35 / Overseas = SFr. 50]