The Peacock Clock

For more than two centuries now the Hermitage has been adorned by a unique exhibit that never fails to evoke the enchanted admiration of visitors the famous Peacock Clock. The figures of a peacock, cockerel and owl that form part of this elaborate timepieceautomaton are fitted with mechanisms that set them in motion. The creation of mechanical birds had long been of interest to inventors: back in the Ancient World figures of singing birds had been used to embellish clepsydras water clocks. In the 18th century the makers of automata tried to create a system that would enable their birds not only to sing, but also to behave as if alive, and they made them lifesize. In the middle of the century, for example, the whole of Europe admired the mechanical duck made by the French craftsman Jacques de Vaucanson, which was able to eat, drink, move and behave in the most lifelike manner. The most celebrated creator of mechanisms of this sort in the second half of the 18th century was the London jeweller and go