Within a fine wooden frame with gesso molded details and gilded overlay, is an oil painting on canvas of a pastoral village scene with stream, country folk and their cattle in the foreground, valleys, mountains and the family home in the background, and the prominent feature of simple village church with enamel-faced mechanical clock in the tower. The concealed clock and musical movements, both unmarked, operate independently of each other. The French clock movement is original with spring suspension pendulum, that strikes on the hour, and an angelus that strikes as an attention getter just prior to the striking of the hour. The Swiss cartel musical movement renders eight tunes on a 57-note comb with full body sound that is amplified further when the hanging is hung on a wall. The music start and tune change controls are manually operated from the bottom of the frame.
Historical References: The painting has an unusual slanted downward perspective that enhances the superbly painted sunlight that seems to bathe the painting. The original tune program is inside listing the eight tunes that include Gounod's Faust (1859), an aria from Verdi's II Trovatore (1853), Fatinitze March by Suppe (1876), La Belle Lunette by Offenbach (1880) and, of particular interest to this painting, Les Cloches de Corneville by Planquette (1877) which refers to the chimes in a church tower. A nearly identical piece was shown in the Bagatelle (Paris) exhibition of automata, and still another is exhibited in the Musee des Arts & Metiers in Paris.