An auction of automatas and mechanical music instruments will take
place in Chartres (France, about 1 hour from Paris) on May 30th,
starting at 4 PM.  Many good automatas (especially a probably unique
three equilibrists automaton by Vichy), barrel organs and mechanical
pianos, music boxes (a good "station box" with 4 dolls, a Sublime
Tremolo box), a good end of XVIIIth century Louis XVI clock with a nine
bells carillon, etc.  And a lot of dolls, gambling machines and phonos.

Part of the catalog (with a few photos), in English and in French, has
been placed on the MMD Events web pages, thanks to Robbie Rhodes and
Jody Kravitz, at the URL:

    http://mmd.foxtail.com/Events/Chartres9905.html

If you do not have access to the web, you may ask directly the auction
house for a catalog (50 FF) :

  France - Chartres - Galerie de Chartres
  Me Jean-Pierre Lelievre - Pascal Maiche - Alain Paris
  Commissaires-priseurs associes
  1 bis, place du General de Gaulle - 28000-Chartres
  Tel. + 33 (0)2 37 84 04 33
  Fax. + 33 (0)2 37 36 34 71
  (Do not dial the first (0) if you are outside France).

Or (being consultant for this auction), I may send you (alas without
photos, otherwise it would be too heavy) the part of the catalog which
deals with automatas and mechanical music instruments, either in
attachment to an e-mail (Word 5 for Macintosh) or included inside an
e-mail, according to your request.

Good reading !

Best regards,

Philippe Rouille  (Paris, France)
rouille@cnam.fr
http://www.cnam.fr/museum/musica_mecanica/