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The benefaction by which Thomas Guy founded the well-kn...There was a great fascination for automated machines at the end of the XVI century. Hans Schlottheim of Augsburg was one of the most famous makers of these machines.
This gilt-copper and steel automation was designed to trundle along a grand table to announce a banquet. It is made in the form of a galleon, with sailors wielding hammers to strike the hours and quarter hours on bells in the crow’s nests. It also shows the time on a dial at the bottom of the main mast. Music is played on a small regal organ and a drum-skin stretched over the base of the hull. On board the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, led by heralds, process before their emperor, who is seated on a throne beneath the main mast. As a grand finale, the ship fires its cannons for the entertainment of the dinner guests.
From Augsburg, South Germany, c. AD 1585.
Ht. 99 cm.
Gift of Octavius Morgan, MP.
This gilt-copper and steel automation was designed to trundle along a grand table to announce a banquet. It is made in the form of a galleon, with sailors wielding hammers to strike the hours and quarter hours on bells in the crow’s nests. It also shows the time on a dial at the bottom of the main mast. Music is played on a small regal organ and a drum-skin stretched over the base of the hull. On board the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, led by heralds, process before their emperor, who is seated on a throne beneath the main mast. As a grand finale, the ship fires its cannons for the entertainment of the dinner guests.
From Augsburg, South Germany, c. AD 1585.
Ht. 99 cm.
Gift of Octavius Morgan, MP.