Hello all!  I wouldn't have to loosen a single screw on that flower
girl automaton to see the Sankyo movement and Brooks Bond tea box
inside.  What struck me immediately was the clumsy concoction of
random typefaces and curlicues on the "TiffanY" label (note the
upper-case letter on the end).

That reminds me of two different pictures of apparently the same
clavichord with the same "Latin" sentence on it, literally
"vt.osa.flos.florvm.ita.hoe.clavle.clavilvim".

One was painted in light colors with dark lettering, the other one
had the inverse color scheme.

Visiting the Carl Claudius collection in Copenhagen, I actually saw one
of the instruments and got the whole story.  The instrument was a fake,
of course, as were some other instruments in its vicinity.  Renowned
collector Claudius being fooled by a faker?  No, sir!  Actually, some
of the instruments were built on request by the great Claudius himself!

Now for my question: I suppose that the correct spelling of the Latin
sentence should be "Ut rosa flos florum, ita hoc clavile clavilium".
But what does it mean? "Like the rose is the flower of flowers, this is
the ..." WHAT?

Greetings from a starry-skied Stockholm,
Christofer Noering

 [ At http://www.marcobresciani.com/keybmilano/early_keyboard_milan2.html
 [  'An Arnold Dolmetsch clavichord with triple choirs, built in 1892.
 [  The cover says "ut rosa flos florum ita hoc clavile clavilium".  That
 [  should stay for ... "as the rose is the flower among the flowers, so
 [  this is the keyboard among the keyboards".'
 [
 [   -- Robbie