#HTE

Waiter, There’s A Bird In My Gun

As far as we’ve come with technology, traditional watchmaking remains an unnervingly skilled trade. The upper crust laborers of Parmigiani Fleurier, a three century year old watch company, include a small staff of highly skilled restorers. The three-person restoration team recently added incredibly rare guns and mysterious automatons to their portfolio, after completing work on a 200 year old device. 

Parmigiani describes their craft of restoration as “the art of re-establishing the former glory of an artifact by setting it free from the torments of time.” In this case they certainly mean it. 

The Songbird Pistol was likely created around 1815, and is a piece of exemplary mechanical design. But before restoration the device was in poor repair, mangled by both time and around six different shoddy reconstruction efforts. After a year of painstakingly careful study, design, reproduction, and meticulous assembly, they finally succeeded in rebuilding it. 

When working smoothly, the pistol is a gaudy and elegant piece based on a cavalry pistol, with a non-violent surprise inside. As the user raises the pistol for action and cocks the hammer, a tiny bird springs from the barrel of the gun instead of a traditional sight. Rather than readying a shot, the little bird begins to spin and flap, while “singing” a complex and lifelike song. Once satisfied with its work, it bows back into the barrel and is shut in by its barrel-facade. 

The bird is feathered, enameled and articulated, with moving head, tail, wings and beak. The music box is housed in the barrel, and every bit of the outside is covered in enamel, filigree work, stones, pearls, and over the top hand-wrought detailing.

While looking for more details, I found hypotheses about its use that I’d love to see novelized. My favorite was the theory that the Songbird Pistol was one half of a dueling set–a dummy version of a real pistol–used by a duplicitous monarch to survive duels. I don’t think it would take a beautiful automaton to pull that off for a king, but points for style have always counted.

The Songbird Pistol was likely created by the famed automaton designer Frères Rochat, and this incredibly rare example belongs to the Sandoz Family Collection. A similar pair, in less up-to-date state, were auctioned at Christies for a resounding $5.8 million. With a year of high octane skilled craft poured into it and a recently renewed mechanical crooner inside, you can’t help but wonder what this incredible labor of love might be worth.