An 18th-century clockwork swan is being brought back to life in time to celebrate its 250th birthday.
The Bowes Museum’s Silver Swan was built in 1773 and is made from 2,000 tiny moving parts.
It performed daily at the museum in Barnard Castle in County Durham, UK, until the pandemic forced its temporary closure.
The life-size solid silver replica of a female swan was first displayed in the mechanical museum of James Cox, who was a London jeweler and 18th-century entrepreneur.
The crowd puller was able to move its head and pick up metal fish thanks to the internal mechanism designed by clockmaker John Joseph Merlin.
Now, the 250-year-old swan is being refurbished after the Bowes Museum was awarded 146,342 pounds from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The Cumbria Clock Company, which has worked on projects involving Big Ben, is heading the restoration.
Experts will dismantle and remove the neck and head assembly to repair the 12 neck rings.
The drive units that power the movement will also be fully disassembled and serviced.
“The Silver Swan is incredibly important to our communities,” said Hannah Fox, the Bowes Museum’s executive director.
“We can’t wait to get started and inspire the next generation of artists, makers, designers, and inventors.”
Said Helen Featherstone, director of Northern England’s National Lottery Heritage Fund: “It will be incredibly exciting to see this amazing example of automata heritage brought back to life so that local people and visitors from further afield can enjoy its magic for years to come.”
The total cost of planned refurbishments exceeds 400,000 pounds.
Fundraisers aim to secure the remaining 199,142 pounds to complete the restoration by the end of this year.
“It is fantastic that we have received this funding allowing us to bring the Silver Swan back to life,” said Vicky Sturrs, the Bowes Museum’s director of programs and collections.
“It’s only fitting that as an automaton, we should ensure that it continues to operate otherwise we risk it becoming just another object—albeit a very beautiful one but not the kind it was intended to be.”
They have to be mindful of the “delicate, fragile, and old machine,” Ms. Sturrs said. The restoration process will be carried out “sympathetically and sustainably” so that future generations may enjoy it in operation for another 250 years.
