A very large auction of mechanical music and automata will take
place in Chartres, France (one hour from Paris) on Sunday, December 2,
2007.  About 400 items!

Some very rare instruments come from the collection of Solange and
Claude Marchal, members of a well-known industrial family.  Claude,
deceased in 1997, was a passionate collector and the founder of the
French Association of Collectors (AAIMM), now with more than six
hundred members.  He was also a member of the MBSI and traveled often
to the U.S.A.

Here is a small selection from the Marchal collection:

    Exceptional and spectacular parlour organ, said to be by Laprevotte,
        ca. 1800, with 7 barrels, 5 stops, 32 keys
    A good Viennese organ clock
    Several very early musical movements, one fusee-driven
    Very good musical snuffboxes, by Martinet et Benoit, F. Lecoultre
    More than 1000 old postcards about the barrel organ, other organs,
        German fairgrounds, monkeys, pierrots, etc.

Besides this famous collection, many other items will be offered:

    A rare original "Savoyard" by Polyphon
    Many good automata, by Vichy, Theroude, Decamps, Phalibois, Lam-
        bert, Roullet-Decamps, etc.
    A good 18th century organ movement and a rich base from the era
    Several Black Forest clocks, two with automata
    Several good or large organs by Gavioli, Limonaire, etc.
    Several barrel pianos
    French parlour organs
    Several musical clock pictures, one with three musical movements
    Many organettes, disc boxes, cylinder boxes, including a large
        interchangeable, and a three-tune Rzebitchek
    Singing bird cages and boxes, one by J. Bruguier, and a serinette
    A Hohner Magic Organa
    Many musical novelties (albums, tiles, clocks, tantalus, "speaking
        pictures" books, etc. )

Included are some arcade machines, and about 170 lots about phonographs
and related materials and postcards.

The catalogue should be posted on the MMD website next week at:
http://mmd.foxtail.com/Auctions/  (Catalogues from previous auctions
remain posted there.)

All inquiries should be directed to the auction house, Galerie de
Chartres, at: chartres@galeriedechartres.com.geentroep (delete .geen-
troep)

Philippe Rouillé
Paris, France
http://www.musicamecanica.org