Years ago we purchased a Hicks barrel piano with automata from the
Ryders in New Jersey but the twelve figures had been stripped away.
We got it for the music that is wonderful, and the repair was easy,
but what won't be so easy is to replace those figures.

This bucket list project is to replicate the figures so that they
move with the given motions provided by the existing movement
mechanism.  What I would prefer to have, going into this project,
is a theme for the staging as it most likely was portrayed based
upon existing movements.

I have lots of pictures of figures from similar instruments but
I don't know the history of the common stories that were played out
through the tradition.  That history in itself would be a fascinating
study.  I would be surprised if this very history hasn't already been
published in German.  I intend for this to be a big learning experience
in numerous areas.  I hope that there is someone out there that knows
something about this.

Jere Ryder said Wolfgang Brommer and Jens Wendel would likely be of
help and he said a good start would be obtaining a copy of the book
they published as a memento of their having gathered many of these
automata instruments for an exhibition a number of years ago.  If you
have a copy of this book or any documentation of similar instruments
please contact me at my email address below.

Thanks,
Jeff Vincent
Upstate New York
gfvincent@frontier.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ This recent book might help:
 [ Herbert Jüttemann: Figurenuhren aus dem Schwarzwald (Figure clocks
 [ from the Black Forest), 168 pages, with 170 black and white photos
 [ and drawings in the text and 104 color images.  Dezember 2006,
 [ Silberburg Verlag, 955, ISBN-10: 3874079554, ISBN-13: 9783874079556
 [ Price at www.weltbild.de is 29.95 euros.  -- Robbie