Dear MMDs,  The large Spring auction of Automatas and Mechanical music
instruments, arcade and amusement machines, fairground artifacts and
phonographs (more than 230 items) will take place in Chartres (1 hour
from Paris, France), on Sunday, May 18th (at least two specialized
auctions each year, since now 30 years).

The catalogue will be soon posted on the MMD web pages (see at the end
of this posting).  Some images are already visible (click on "List of
Images") at  http://mmd.foxtail.com/Auctions/Chartres0305/index.html

Amidst the many interesting items, you will notice :

 - Many fine automatas by Bontems, Decamps, Lambert, Phalibois, Renou,
Roullet-Decamps, Vichy ("Le Pierrot ecrivain"), etc.

 - Two wonderful modern automatas by Jacques Monestier ("L'Ile
Deserte")

 - Three large fairground organs (Limonaire 35, Gasparini 52, and a
modern "midified" organ)

- A rare Gavioliflute barrel organ, a small Italian vertical barrel
piano, and a good cylinder organ movement (probably for a secretaire)

 - Three gold musical seals, singing birds by Bontems, cylinder and
disc musical boxes, musical picture-clocks, and many musical novelties

 - Organettes (Tanzbar, several Aristons and an Orchestrionette
Ehrlich)

 - Many fairground artifacts and gambling machines, phonographs and
records

 - Plenty of good and various documentation (in English, German and
French), about mechanical music and fairground art

The catalogue is just printed and is on its way to the subscribers
(8 euros for one catalogue, or 20 euros for four catalogues for two
years).  All inquiries should be directed to :

  Galerie de Chartres
  Me Jean-Pierre Lelievre - Pascal Maiche - Alain Paris
  Commissaires-priseurs associes
  10, rue Claude Bernard - ZA du Coudray BP 70129 -
  28003 Chartres Cedex
  France
  Tel.*  +33 (0) 2 37 88 28 28
  Fax * : + 33 (0) 2 37 88 28 20
  E-mail: chartres@galeriedechartres.com
  (* Do not dial the first (0) if you are outside France).

This event is announced well in advance on the agenda of the web site
http://www.musicamecanica.org/ , and the complete catalogue will be
published in English and French, thanks to Robbie Rhodes, Jody Kravitz
and Joyce Brite, on the web site of the MMD at

  http://mmd.foxtail.com/Auctions/

(The complete results of the auction will be posted there too, and you
may look at the catalogues of the previous auctions since Dec. 1998).

With best regards,

Philippe Rouille  (Paris, France)
http://www.musicamecanica.org