Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin

Aquarius (1910–1914) by Ilna Ewers-Wunderwald.

• “…they created a unique Afro-Caribbean soundscape—Battiste’s exceptional skills saw him use the studio as an instrument, voices flutter in and out, instruments shiver and shriek, over which Rebennack mutters and chants, a shaman of sorts.” Garth Cartwright on the life and works of Mac Rebennack, better known to the world as Dr John.

• Issue 3 of Man Is The Animal: A Coil Zine is now available for pre-order. I contributed to this one with a piece entitled “Singularities of Art and Nature”, an examination of the Coil discography via the Wunderkammer concept and the Musaeum Clausum of Thomas Browne.

• Among the recent arrivals at Standard Ebooks, the home of free, high-quality, public-domain texts, is Arthur Machen’s episodic and influential horror novel The Three Imposters (1895).

• Media History Digital Library: “A free online resource, featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.”

• At Dennis Cooper’s: Shall I, Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, conjurer, introduce myself to you, viewer? And why not?

• At Public Domain Review: The Blood Collages of John Bingley Garland (ca. 1850–60).

• Mix of the week: Endymion, an autumnal ambient mix by The Ephemeral Man.

• “New Webb image captures clearest view of Neptune’s rings in decades.”

• New music: Of Endless Light by Cleared.

• RIP jazz giant Pharoah Sanders.

• Conjuration (1977) by Tangerine Dream | Necronomicon—Conjurations (2004) by John Zorn | A Boy Called Conjuror (2020) by Teleplasmiste

Yesterday’s post concerned skeleton clocks so I have to follow up with something about mystery clocks, those fascinating devices whose hands move without any apparent attachment to gears or clockwork. It’s the glass that moves, of course, and the trick is easily puzzled out in many of the pieces with circular faces. Rather more ingenious are square clocks like the simple and elegant Smiths Electric Mystery Clock from 1934 which used a central pane of glass moving from side to side to operate the hands. Especially impressive is this one-off piece which is entirely clear and seems to have no moving parts at all.

The clocks shown here are among the more lavish examples. The piece above is an early model from circa 1837 credited to Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, the renowned stage magician who was also a notable inventor, clockmaker and scientist. Below is one of a series of Art Deco-styled clocks made by Cartier during the 1920s. Having the clock suspended rather than supported is an unusual touch which adds just that bit more mystery.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Skeleton clocks
• The Midsummer Chronophage
• The Corpus Clock

Tag: Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin

Weekend links 640

Mystery clocks