Philippe Rouillé's secret collection of musical boxes will be sold
at auction to benefit the Little Brothers of the Poor, on Sunday,
December 8, 2013, at 14:00 hours at the Galerie de Chartres,
7, rue Collin d'Harleville, in Chartres, France.

The Galerie de Chartres, known to collectors around the world for its
sales of toys and specialties, is also famous for its international
auctions of musical boxes, mechanical musical instruments and automata
which take place twice a year.  The next sale in December should bring
together all of the planet's fans and collectors because the auction
house will disperse the personal collection of Philippe Rouillé, a
collection of 200 pieces that the renowned expert on mechanical music
had kept totally secret.

The collection is not only important in its numbers (about 200 pieces)
but also in its quality since it brings together the names of famous
manufacturers, mainly Swiss, such as Brémond, François Nicole, François
Lecoultre, David Lecoultre, Ducommun-Girod.

The collection includes several very rare fusée movements, known as
"primitives", dating from the early nineteenth century, with teeth
made one-by-one, tuned by filing, and screwed to the unit on a tooth
carrier.  Also included is a mechanical organ of the 18th century of
24 keys, with tin pipes and a pinned wooden cylinder, contained in a
large carved cabinet of the same period, surmounted by a clock.

An educated and enthusiastic man, Philippe Rouillé had traveled
extensively in the world to visit collections and had opened a shop
at the Palais Royal.  In his will, his last wish was to disperse his
entire collection at the Galerie de Chartres and for the benefit of
Little Brothers of the Poor.

It is therefore a beautiful memorial tribute that he renders to the
auction house where he was expert for 15 years.

Galerie de Chartres
Chartres, France
http://www.ivoire-chartres.com/ 
chartres@galeriedechartres.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ Press release of Philippe Rouillé's collection of musical boxes
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/13/11/07/131107_082257_Communique%20de%20presse%20vente%20P.%20Rouille.pdf 
 [
 [ Description and videos:
 [ http://www.ivoire-france.com/fr/videos-boites-a-musique-de-p-rouille,article-273.html 
 [
 [ The International Federation of Little Brothers of the Poor was
 [ founded in 1979 to promote the work of the Little Brothers of the
 [ Poor throughout the world, by helping member organizations to expand
 [ their efforts in encouraging and facilitating communication between
 [ member countries by encouraging the development of settlements in
 [ other countries.  More at http://www.petits-freres.org/  -- Robbie