Antique French Automaton Singing Bird Cage with Nightingale
This singing bird cage comes from the golden age of European automata, made in France around the 19th to early 20th century, very likely within the Paris workshop tradition (in the style of Bontems / Japy / Roullet & Decamps). It consists of an octagonal gilded wooden base with a domed brass cage. When wound, the red-feathered nightingale in the cage turns its head, opens its beak, gently moves its tail and whistles birdsong, with natural gradations of pitch and a delicate rhythm. A switch on the base selects three modes: stop / continuous song / intermittent song. The piece is complete and well preserved, and comes with its original French instruction card (Remonter avec la clé…), printed with winding and operating instructions and bearing the handwritten bird names “Rossignol (nightingale)” and “Tangara écarlate (scarlet tanager)” — suggesting it served as a reference label issued by a boutique or workshop, and making it of very high value for research and collecting.
