SIX rare antique clockwork toys are going on public display next month as part of the 250th anniversary of The Bowes Museum’s Silver Swan.
The Magic of the Silver Swan exhibition, which starts on July 8, will feature a range of ancient and modern objects and works of art related to movement, among them six toys from the early 1900s that are rarely seen.
A museum spokesperson said inventiveness was at the heart of the exhibition, exploring movement and kinetic art from the historical to the contemporary, telling different stories, but linked by their automation.
Curator Howard Coutts and assistant Sarah Webster unpacked the museum’s collection of clockwork toys last week to select items for a static display.
Dr Coutts said: “We are hesitant to try to get the toys to work because of their fragility, so they will be on display but not working.”
Ms Webster added that contemporary items, such as Performer – a prosthetic arm playing a synthesiser by Swedish artist Tobias Bradford – will be seen in action.
The items chosen for display range from a wind-up fire engine and a motorboat from about 1910, to a woman on roller-skates and a performing sealion, from about 1900.
Most of the items were made in Germany before the First World War and would have been owned by upper-middle class families.
Dr Coutts added that most of the items were bequeathed to the museum about 50 years ago by people who had owned them as children.
Items have been borrowed from the places such as the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Arts, Royal Collection Trust and The National Archives.
Among the highlights is the forerunner to the modern computer, Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine, which will be on display from the Science Museum.
The Bowes Museum’s director of programmes and collections, Vicky Sturrs, said: “The show is a celebration of movement in all forms, from scientific object to automata, clockwork toy to moving image, and will be a fitting tribute to the Silver Swan and the fascination it holds in people’s memories.
“The placement of works, not by timeline, but by their intertwined stories and how they speak to each other, will give visitors a stimulating and intriguing experience, as well as an expanded understanding of kinetic art and objects; there will be lots to look at, listen to, explore and experience.”
The exhibition runs until January 7, 2024.
