1 Million Dollar Singing Bird Automaton Pistol

[DoomGoober]

Christies is currently auctioning a pair of "Singing Bird" derringers. The last single Singing Bird derringer sold for a million dollars.

The pistol is a piece of clockwork that has a mechanical bird that sings and twitters like a real bird when one pulls the trigger. It can be seen in action below:
http://www.christies.com/singing-bird-pistols-en-1422-3.aspx

No word on what caliber the pistol is (or how long it takes to clean after firing, considering it has what must be dozens of clockwork gears =) )

 

[ATBackPackin]

yeah but where can you get a holster for them?

seriously though, while not cup of tea (nor crumpets for that matter), you have to admire the craftsmanship that went into making that piece of art.

Shawn

 

[RevolvingGarbage]

Looks like it fires nothing, its just a really really intricate mechanism.

 

[357 Terms]

Unreal. Something that fragile and complex that is almost 200yrs old and still works perfect. I just cant for the life of me understand why someone would make something so strange.I never have been one to appreciate "art"

 

[Shadow 7D]

Not a real gun, but WOW,
How'ld you like to be at a party and have some girl 'shoot' you with one of those, I'd be surprised when a little bird popped out.

The mother of pearl or Ivory striker kinda gives it away

 

[Jim NE]

VERY cool, but $5 million for the pair? I'd only pay like $2 or 3 million.

 

[BCRider]

The design, workmanship and quality is truly amazing. But such things are worth what the market will bear due to their rarity. Does the expected price seem silly? Well, it's no worse than what extremely rare collectable postage stamps are worth. Frankly I'd rather pay $5M for these singing bird pistols than $5M for a bit of paper.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Truly amazing and utterly without utility, love it.

Wonder what member of the nobility these were made for?

 

[DoomGoober]

Rats! I thought they were actually firing pistols. But on more careful reading, they're just wind up devices like a music box. BTW, the pair sold for 5.8 million US.

http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/05/31/cuckoo-birds-sell-for-5-8-million/?mod=google_news_blog

 

[Desolo]

How amazing....

One could wonder what people 200 years from now will be looking at that WEVE made LOL

 

[armoredman]

That was truly incredible work, what attention to detail, what painstaking work that must have been in that time. Wow, thanks for sharing.

 

[Brian Williams]

Wonder music boxes. Not guns