Automata have always fascinated me. As an artform it's the perfect combination of engineering, humour and art. The fact that I grew up in south-west Cornwall probably helps as two of the great masters - Keith Newstead and Paul Spooner - both lived there, one in Falmouth and one in Stithians. I can still remember looking through the window of Newstead's studio as a young teenager and marvelling at his inventiveness. Keith sadly died in 2020 but an archive of his amazing work remains on YouTube here.
Spooner is another mechanical humourist and his work never fails to make me smile.
Another great was the legendary late Ron Fuller.
And there are so many more including Peter Lennertz, Tim Hunkin, Oliver Pett, Uli Tuchman, Xiang Mu, Sam Cobb ...
Once you go down the automata rabbit hole you may never come back out.
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