The little lady in the photo above is over two hundred years old. When the handle at the base of the mechanism is cranked she turns the handle of her spinning wheel (which then spins) with her right hand. She then turns her head to the left, lifts the thread to her mouth with her left hand, and appears to bite off the thread. She was made about the year 1800, and probably at the prisoner of war camp at Norman Cross near Peterborough. She was made by Napoleonic French prisoners of war, from the beef bones of their meals. The whole mechanism is three and a half inches high, and two inches wide. It is a fascinating little automata. It came to me shattered and in pieces. I have tried to conserve as much of the original as possible, but some pieces were beyond repair, and others missing. I have made five of the parts (from two old bone dominoes- long hoarded) and an inch long light return spring from a thin sliver of cow horn. Been very satisfying doing it, but I'm now looking forward to getting on with some real work- a grandfather clock which is awaiting my attention.
Goodnight all.
2 comments:
There ain't much what you can't turn your hand to when the fancy takes you Mike.
Why, thankee Carl. The hard part, usually, in a thing like this, is trying to decide what the missing parts were like. This was easier than that, insofar as the shattered remains were usually symetric (that looks wrong!) so that a pattern could be built up from something that was only a quarter there; and the one or two bits that were completely missing could be visualised, partly from the empty peg holes, and partly from basing them on the design of what WAS there. Very satisfying work.
Just looked it up : two mms in symmetric (still looks wrong, though). Oh well!!!!!
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