Eight Day Musical Cuckoo Clocks
The Eight Day Musical Cuckoo Clocks are almost the same internally as the one Day Musical Cuckoo Clocks. Eight day musical Cuckoo Clocks contain two mechanical movements which depend on being wound every 8 days. The difference between the one and eight day clocks is in the the size of the weights under the clock which are heavier in the eight day clock. Cuckoo clocks are almost always weight driven; a very few are driven using a spring. The melody plays on the hour in an eight day clock, but on the half hour the bird and music do not sound. The two tunes in the clock are played alternatively each hour. Musical cuckoo clocks often have lively animated figures which move when the music box plays. The moving figures can include people dancing, sawing wood, drinking beer or even a water wheel turning. The mechanism to produce the cuckoo call has been installed in almost every kind of cuckoo clock since the middle of the eighteenth century and has remained almost without deviation until the present day.
There are two styles of Cuckoo Clocks:
The Chalet Style Cuckoo Clock.
The basic design of the Cuckoo Cuckoo depicts three different styles of Chalets, and two of the styles originate in the Swiss Alps. A Chalet is a modest, wooden Alpine hut in Switzerland used for many years by sheep and goat herders. This single word is the only Swiss addition to Cuckoo clocks. The charming clocks during the latter part of the nineteenth century were highly prized by tourists and became extremely popular in Switzerland. Travelers loved the elegant articles as Swiss souvenirs. Of the three basic styles of chalets used to make the Cuckoo Clocks, two of them originate in the Swiss Alps. The village of Brienz in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland gave its name to one style of chalet while the other chalet structure is Emmental also a locality in Switzerland, and which has a steep roof with a large overhang that almost reaches to the ground. A Bavarian chalet also has a steep roof and overhanging eaves. The Bavarian Chalet Cuckoo Clock is the most popular subject for the introduction of a Swiss music box which plays various melodies. Carved leaves, birds, and animal heads adorn the outer, wooden framework of the Cuckoo Clock. Typically, the clock dial is small and imprinted with Roman numerals.
Hunter Cuckoo Clocks
The Hunter or Deer Head Clock is a square, shaped box which accommodates a small, carved Cuckoo bird inside, and outside the clock is usually displayed a hunting scene. Positioned at the top of the clock in the center is the head of a buck deer complete with carved antlers. Arrayed around the dial of the clock often are hunter trophies and crossed shotguns. Two weights hang beneath the clock along with a pendulum which help to operate the movement of the clock.
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