A Bird Automaton

John Moorhouse designs and constructs a singing bird automaton in the shape of a violin.

- John Moorhouse

Inspiration

Form watches, i.e. watch movements housed in a shaped and decorated gold or silver case, were made in Europe primarily in the 19th century in various forms, typically a fruit such as an apple or pear, insects or as a musical instrument such as a harp or a violin (photo 1). They are highly decorative, luxury items and the enamel was often inlaid with gold cloissonné wires overlaid with a painted decoration fired on. As expected they have conventional lock and fly springs for the case lid, to be able to open and read the watch face (photo 2).

Having already made a number of pieces containing enamel over the top of engine turned patterning I was attracted by the work of Phil Barnes who made use of various types of hand engraved decoration covered with vitreous enamel. I therefore chose to make a small scale violin with the hand engraved decoration covered in a suitable coloured enamel to help to replicate the nature of the wood. I was tempted by the idea of making it to house a watch movement, such as a good quality verge movement lacking its original, probably gold case, but rejected this to make a unique item. I did however adopt the bulbous shape of these stringed instrument case styles, based on the need to house a circular movement, resulting in a more ‘cello-like’ result.

The case

The body and back were each formed by hydraulic pressing of 0.8mm thick silver sheet into a violin shaped Perspex cut-out using urethane rubber, a highly flexible rubber which returns to its original shape. The attractively domed form for both the body and back then had the edged knocked over to create a stiff rim. For the body, now 60mm long by 42mm wide, a shaped strip was bent to match the inside profile of the rim. It was a bit tricky to bend the strip to fit neatly but patience won and it was then soldered in position (photo 3).