This list is just a very small selection of work examples - lots more are available on request:
Here is a short case study of how this single singing bird in cage turned from a battered, silent and moth-eaten mess...
...to this happily churping, clean and majestic well-loved family treasure once more
The bird - rebuilt, refeathered, fed and watered.
The movement was a full-overhaul job, with all parts dismantled, tank-cleaned, individually examined, polished and re-assembled. The bellows were rebuilt with new valves and skins.
The model 18 singing bird box by Karl Griesbaum - one of the best known boxes and the one model we get sent most often. This very dull and non-operative example needed a full restoration, new bellows and a flash of gilding. Let's show you here with before, during and after snaps:
This Bontems tortoiseshell singing bird box had two nasty pitted dents and was scratched badly to all sides. After our special process of colour-matching fill, levelling and polish, all was well to an invisible degree.
This underside singing bird box panel had losses and cracks, which is not uncommon due to shrinkage. The corners were remade and the whole repolished to match the condition of the rest of the piece.
Cat-in-Milk churn automaton movements by Roullet & Decamps often suffer from fur ingress. This example stopped working altogether as nothing would operate. A strip-down and gentle overhaul, including cylinder pin straightening, saw this working, sounding and amazing people once again.
Another piece by Roullet & Decamps from around 1900 is the famous Rabbit-in-Cabbage. This walked into our workshop on a tray in pieces, but came out happily nibbling without looking like it had been on the operating table. This is a good example of what conservation is all about and it is our default method policy of working - the visual charm is retained.
This Bontems singing bird, jumping birds and timepiece automaton tree was in dire need of some love, having been de-leaved years ago, various linkages missing, branches and all-manner of small and indeed large problems which left it unable to look nice or work. There were many stages in this job, but the main tree element shows what we started with, and then what it became. Reverse engineering was used on the rusted-solid components. A magical model of golden age automata.
Another classic animal magic automaton by Roullet & Decamps - the walking pig! The mainspring snapped, so the body had to be removed to get to it. After a movement re-spring and re-build, the skin was filled and restored, then colour-matched and re-fitted to grunt and walk again.