Dear friends, a new section is added to our Video Archive – a cycle of video lectures, in which we post video lectures about the museum Collection exposition. Today we are presenting one of the most popular lectures, which is dedicated to the wonders of mechanics and is centered round the amazing automata dolls.

Great variety of mechanisms is presented on the museum website in the section “Amusing automata”. Those mechanisms might be enclosed in a doll of a person, animal or bird, which being winded moves to the music and performs actions characteristic of its image.

The collection of amusing automata in our museum is one-of-a-kind in Russia and is recognized by experts as one of the best in the world. It presents all types and forms of mechanical toys of the XVIII - XX centuries.

The biographies of the talented artisans and inventors that created these unique items are in the section “Authors”. Among them are Gustav Vichy, Leopold Lambert, Swiss firm Reuge, French company Roullet & Decamps and others.