I just acquired this rare rope drive 26 pipe organ clock (circa 1800’s) with two automated birds. The birds move back and forth while moving their beaks to the music. I willl be sending the front face to Vlastimil Poborsky “Pobo” the restoration artist to be restored. He has restored several front dial faces for me before and has done excellent work.

In the meantime I’m restoring the clock movement and automation. I will post progress on the forum as I move through the process.

I will be fabricating a wall bracket for the movement and will not be using the clock case as I have done in the past.

Here are some photos of the movement which I started sorting out. I have tested all the flutes and made some minor fixes as at least five of them came apart at the base where the little wood plate is attached.

I spent at least 4 hrs sorting out the automation in the two birds was not operational. The one black bird was missing its upper beak and I was lucky enough to find it wedged in a seam of the movement. It is now playing but the volume is 1/3rd of what it should be. So I need to dive into the wind chest.

As I stated I will be sending out the front face for restoration as soon as the fridged weather has a break for restoration.