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When one thinks of antique watchmaking, the mind automatically refers to precious pendulum clocks and wristwatches; but for Martino Lurani Cernuschi, 40, since he was a child, it is the world behind the ticking of the clock or the movement of a hand that exerts enormous fascination. A profound curiosity, that for the mechanism that drives the object, which led him to become passionate about the functioning of a very particular type of clock: those for buildings, and in particular the ancient bell tower clocks which, unlike domestic clocks (characterized by a spring mechanism), work with a weight mechanism.
This is how his collection was born, now kept in the family residence, Palazzo Lurani Cernuschi in via Cappuccio in Milan: one of the most incredible collections of specimens in this sector, it was born on the wave of a passion that is accompanied by a another great love of our protagonist: the one for music. But let's go in order: «As a child, I spent my summer holidays in Tigullio. I was studying piano, but it was organ music that particularly fascinated me» says Martino, «so I began to ask to be able to play church organs. From the age of 11, any occasion was good to go and disturb the priest so that I could play. And in the meantime, I would observe the exterior of the bell tower clocks, wondering about the functioning of their mechanism which, I discovered, has nothing to do with the external appearance, but is totally an object in itself. So, I would ask the priest to climb on the bell tower!» The first discovery of a bell tower clock took place in a church in Santa Margherita Ligure: «I climbed up and understood, from the presence of scaffolding, that this mechanism would soon be dismantled, demolished, and sent to the landfill. I took the various scraps and brought them home. I didn't know how they worked then; but I began to study and try to reassemble them, and slowly… I succeeded».
Among flea markets and online ads, Martino started looking for these objects, considered of little importance, which however generated fascination in him, to the point that a good part of the collection, today one of the most important in the field, has been accumulated by searching for pieces and mechanisms in online ads; «Over the years, I've refined my taste and started selecting the pieces: bell tower clocks exist from the 13th c. onwards, but I'm passionate about the most recent and technological ones, those ranging from 1830-40 up to to the 1930s, the period in which their technological evolution is most interesting», explains Martino, who recounts how the Italian market includes very few collectors in this sector, while in countries such as Germany, France or England, there is a much broader and more dynamic market. And given that the bibliography on these pieces is almost non-existent, Martino resorted to an interesting trick to study them: «I began to collect the advertising material — catalogues, brochures — of the companies that produced the materials for mechanisms for building clocks, once again through online ads, websites and small antique book dealers». Therefore, in addition to the collection, a substantial archive of advertising material on bell tower clocks has been formed over the years: a real overview of the models through illustrations, from which Martino has drawn enormous expertise.
It does not end here, because as we mentioned, it is the combination of antique watches and music that guides the creative and professional path of Martino, photographed in the above image playing the organ at San Giorgio in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily. Nowadays he is the Director of the Clock, Scientific Instruments and Mechanical Instruments Department at auction house Il Ponte, Milan; but, «basically I remain a musician, I play and compose for orchestra». Passionate about the relationship between cinema and music — his favorite soundtracks are those of Tim Burton's films signed by Denny Elfman, and then Morricone, John Williams... Martino has welcomed musical automatic instruments into his life, those that through a mechanism — partly clockwork, as in the case of classic music boxes, partly pneumatic — are activated and play by themselves. These instruments — a classic example is the piano in Western movies — served as entertainment in places where good music was needed in the absence of musicians, as their sound came directly from the instruments, who were real ancestors of the jukebox: the most interesting in fact worked with coins, to then evolve and work with a button-operated electric pump.
«I discovered the existence of a still unknown world, and I studied it, again, through the sources of the foreign market: in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, automatic instruments are particularly documented and sought after» explains Martino, who collects in particular specimens from 1870 to the 1930s; «in these countries, there are craftsmen who are highly trained in the event of restoration, as the history of large companies shows, including the legendary Steinway & Sons, a prestigious piano manufacturer, which at a certain point established joint ventures with the largest firms of automatic mechanisms: from the combination of mechanisms and musical instruments many examples of automatic instruments were born, from the cheapest to the most sophisticated ones, such as the Steinway Welte».
And it is precisely a Steinway Welte, one of the pieces from Martino's collection that he feels most fond of, that appears among his 6 favorite objects:
1) CAGE WITH BIRDS
It is an automaton built by Blaise Bontems in the second half of the 19th c. This was considered one of the flagship models of the manufacture, and its particularity is that of having two little birds and Sèvres porcelain plaques. This specimen belonged to Gordon Selfridge, founder of the British department store Selfridges.
2) MUSIC BOX
This is a very special and enormous music box with interchangeable cylinders built around 1880 in Switzerland. The instrument also has a set of 13 bells finely decorated with zoomorphic elements, enclosed in an elegant briar veneered cabinet.
3) BELL TOWER CLOCK
This is the mechanism of a large bell tower clock built in Como, italy, in 1858. It is fascinating to think that, although these machines were "hidden" at the top of the bell towers, they were nonetheless decorated and garnished with rich decorative elements.
4) AEOLIAN ORGAN
This is an American salon pipe organ, from 1913. In addition to being played traditionally, it can also play alone with the aid of perforated paper rolls. At the time, there was no prestigious home in America that didn't have an Aeolian organ inside.
5) STEINWAY WELTE
Very special autopiano built in 1928 and the result of a collaboration with one of the best companies in the field at the time: Steinway & Sons, which produced pianos.
6) DISC MUSIC BOX
A rare example of a disk musc box by the Symphonion company, produced in Germany towards the end of the 19th c. It has the amusing peculiarity of being coin-operated, and therefore can be considered an ancestor of the jukebox!
