The Silver Swan is an automaton dating from the 18th Century and is housed in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Teesdale, County Durham, England. It was acquired by John Bowes, the museum's founder from a Parisian jeweller in 1872. The swan, which is life size, is a clockwork driven device that includes a music box. The swan sits in a "stream" that is made of glass rods and is surrounded by silver leaves. Small silver fish can be seen "swimming" in the stream. The mechanism was designed and built by John Joseph Merlin (1735-1803) in conjunction with the London inventor James Cox (1723-1800) in 1773.
8 ноя 2018
