3-008-828 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: the piping bullfinch in the Swiss Court, 1862. 'The success of this little vocalist is the more remarkable as his part is always a solo...and in precisely the same character, and his stage actually no larger than a snuffbox...with only one painted scene of an Alpine valley..."The Swiss Bullfinch" accepts no salary, and, still more wonderful, the enterprising "managers", Messrs. Aubert and Linton have devoted the whole of the proceeds...to the relief of the sufferers by the cotton famine...this little piping bullfinch is a very clever little automaton, and no mean triumph of horological art; and the idea of raising money from its performances...was a very praiseworthy one...it is really a very pretty and amusing sight to see the little mechanical creature pop out, flutter and ruffle its wings, settle down, fold them up, open its little throat, and pour out its piercing yet sweet trills and pretty cadences from the box beneath, and then as deftly pop back again...Messrs. Aubert and Linton placed in the Swiss Court the announcement that whenever the sum of five shillings was raised among the visitors his little bird should perform; and...in seventeen days the bullfinch has earned upwards of £200'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.