![]() With their wonderful poetic autonomy, musical automata still have the power to enthral us, even in this high-tech world. In Sainte-Croix, mechanical musical devices still rely on arts and crafts, which requires the involvement of a wide range of specialists to design, build, dress and decorate each object. They are nowadays rather built in workshops and factories. Mechanical musical automata had long been produced according to the “établissage” method, where production was sub-contracted to home-workers and tasks were divided along strict gender lines. Despite their differences, both devices marry engineering with artistic crafts and most function without electricity.įrom tiny “snuff boxes” to imposing “cartels”, there are music boxes to suit all tastes and budgets, with the most expensive costing as much as 100,000 Swiss francs. ![]() While music boxes produce sound by making a series of tuned teeth vibrate, mechanical musical automata – whose origin can be traced back to 18th century France – mimic the action of animated beings and are driven by a mechanical, pneumatic or hydraulic mechanism. The development of precision engineering techniques for the production of mechanical musical automata is inextricably linked with watchmaking, and over the course of the 19th century its use would become widespread through the Vaud Jura. ![]()
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