Fashion And Gluttonous Food Launched By The Horological Kingdom

An interesting Audiovisual feast

The horological kingdom is not born

Switzerland is a world famous kingdom of clocks, but this situation has not been the case since the emergence of clocks.

We now know very little about the history of early Swiss watches. Like other European countries, Swiss watchmakers are not valued in society and their status is not high, so the historical records are rather vague. Due to the barrier of mountains, Switzerland has little communication with other low-lying countries in Europe, such as France, Germany, Italy, etc. in terms of clock making, and the revolutionary inventions in the early history of clocks almost missed Switzerland. At that time, there were few watchmakers in Switzerland. In 1515, the big clock of St. Pierre's Cathedral in Geneva needed to be repaired. Even the right watchmaker could not be found in the city. However, this situation soon changed with the religious reform movement in the European continent, and Swiss clocks entered a new historical stage.

The rise of Swiss watchmaking is closely related to the religious reform movement in the European continent in the 16th century. The Swiss bell making industry was introduced from France, and was first introduced in Jura. Because of its geographical location close to France, it has more contact with France in terms of industrial production, and later extended in the Lake Geneva. Because of the persecution of secular and conservative orthodox sects of the church at that time, many Protestants left their homes and took refuge in Switzerland and Britain. Most of the Protestants were small and medium-sized nobles and urban craftsmen, including many watchmakers and goldsmiths, which made the Swiss watchmaking industry developed. A large number of watchmakers gathered, united and exchanged technologies here, Watch manufacturing has become an important pillar industry of Switzerland's economy, with an increasing number of employees. In 1725, two out of every 10 citizens in Geneva were engaged in watch manufacturing. By 1788, there were four. At that time, there were about 20000 people in and outside Geneva making a living, producing 100000 watches. Among these exiles, they not only have superb watch technology, but also have entrepreneurs who are good at business. They sell Swiss watches to Europe, China and other countries. Swiss watches have become famous in the world since then.

China and Switzerland have long had exchanges in watchmaking and trade. For example, Francois Louis Stadlin, a Swiss Zuger who came to China in the 46th year of Kangxi's reign, was addicted to machinery when he was young. He especially studied the technology of making clocks and watches. After arriving in Beijing, he made many wonderful mechanical objects, which were appreciated by the emperor, and became a famous watchmaker in the palace. At the same time, in order to sell Swiss watches to China, a small watch trading company was established in Guangzhou. At the beginning of the 19th century, Switzerland had direct trade with China, and clocks and watches became the main commodities. Swiss watchmakers have come to China to set up watch trading companies, the most famous of which is Beauvais. At the same time, other Swiss watch companies, such as Juvet and Dimier, also rely on their respective production bases to enter the Chinese market and have achieved quite good results. Some have also established branches in Shanghai, Tianjin, Hankou and other places. In order to make their products more familiar to Chinese people, Swiss trading companies and manufacturers have taken various measures to expand their influence. In 1840, Bowei Brothers took the lead in naming their products with the Chinese trademark name "Bowei". Since then, other companies have followed suit, with the emergence of "Youwei", "Liwei", "Ullivan" and other names. Until the beginning of the 20th century, clocks and watches of these brands were still sold in the market and were welcomed by Chinese consumers.

Most of the Swiss clocks and watches in the Forbidden City are small and unique seat clocks and exquisite pocket watches. The clock generally imitates the natural landscape such as architecture or mountains and rivers. In addition to timing, it is also equipped with changing machinery such as water method, bird voice, magic, etc., giving people a refreshing feeling. Most pocket watches are so-called "Chinese market watches", which are specially made for the Chinese market to meet the aesthetic needs of Chinese consumers. Its appearance is beautifully decorated, with various shapes and ingenuity. In addition to the commonly used round shapes, it also has fan shaped, lock shaped, fruit shaped, insect shaped and other shapes. The case is generally made of gold, silver, copper and other gold plated materials. Some cases are painted with realistic enamel paintings of people, flowers, birds and animals, and inlaid with precious stones such as pearls and diamonds. Its movement is commonly known as the "Big Eight", and each plywood is carved or painted with exquisite and delicate patterns, which is extremely luxurious. These characteristics are fully reflected in the Swiss clocks and watches collected in the Palace Museum.

An interesting audio-visual feast

Interesting Bird Bell

The gold-plated copper inlaid enamel birdsong bottle watch is typical Switzerland Clocks and watches are small and exquisite. After removing the jacket of the clock, the movement is divided into two systems, one is the travel time system, and the other is the birdsong system. First, the travel time system is disassembled and cleaned. After assembly and debugging, its function is restored. The birdsong system is mainly divided into three parts: music device, bird moving device and air bag device. After its repair, the birdsong system finally operates normally, making its performance lifelike.

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An interesting audio-visual feast

It can be clearly seen from the existing archives of the Qing Palace and the clocks and watches left in the Qing Palace that the clocks and watches with the theme of birds occupy a place in the Qing Palace. Such clocks and watches are called bird sound clocks and watches.

When talking about birdsong clocks, the first two people to mention are Jacques, a Swiss clock giant Droe and the talented mechanic Jacob Bufulisa. They have made an important contribution to the mechanical device of clock and bird sound. Previously, the singing mechanical bird was usually equipped with a heavy mechanical pipe organ device called the canary. Jacques Delo and Lesoth and Jacob Bufulisa worked closely to invent a birdsong device that uses a sliding door to sound, further miniaturize the design, bring revolutionary progress to the birdsong technology, and apply this achievement to their clocks and watches. Today, we are lucky to see their works in the collection of the Qing Palace. Their talent in bird sound installation is fully displayed through these works.

There are two types of Jacques Dello birdsong clocks in the Qing Palace, one is the small seat clock with birdsong. This kind of clock consists of base, timing part and mechanical bird. A mechanical device for controlling the movement and singing of mechanical birds is placed in the rectangular base, and is connected with each part of the mechanical birds on the top through a pull rod. The central vertical pillar of the base supports a two needle, white enamel dial. The back case can be opened, and there are upper chord holes and two sets of clockwork power sources inside. At the top of the clock stands a mechanical bird, whose body is made of copper, on which are pasted green feathers, and whose beak is made of dentin. After starting the winding at the bottom, the mechanical bird's body swings from side to side, opens its mouth to sing, and its wings flap. There are birdsong and stop valve under the pillar, which can control the issue or stop of birdsong at any time.

In addition, according to his own taste Observe the record of the transformation of the birdcage bell. For example, in May of the 45th year of Qianlong's reign (1780), Emperor Qianlong, who was in Chengde Summer Resort, made suggestions on the renovation of a pair of copper mountain bird cage clocks displayed in Yanyu Building, instructing to remove the kingfishers in the cage and add two more birds instead of kingfishers. At the same time, a leafy tree is added in the cage, and a bird is perched on the tree. Trees, birds, rocks and ganoderma lucidum are all made of copper. A few days later, eunuch Eluli presented the paper pattern drawn at the place where the clock was made to the Emperor Qianlong. Qianlong agreed to make it the same way, and decreed to take it to the capital to be made by the bell maker, and then sent it to Chengde.

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