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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Museum · Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel

Home of the Jaquet-Droz automata: the Writer, the Draughtsman and the Musician.

Overview

Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel is a museum based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Home of the Jaquet-Droz automata: the Writer, the Draughtsman and the Musician.

As a museum, its value to horology lies in objects that can be examined at first hand: dials, cases, movements and, where displayed open, the construction of the mechanism itself.

Displayed pieces are normally a fraction of the reserve collection; museums of this kind commonly hold further timekeepers in store that can be seen only by research appointment.

Photographs

Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel — lead image of the Wikipedia article “Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Neuchâtel”
Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel — lead image of the Wikipedia article “Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Neuchâtel” — See file page (Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia), See file page. Wikimedia Commons file page

Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.

Using it for research

  • Ask whether an online collection catalogue exists — accession numbers make a citation precise and let other researchers find the same object.
  • Curatorial departments can sometimes confirm attributions, maker signatures and provenance for objects in their own collection; they do not normally authenticate or value private pieces.
  • Catalogues of past exhibitions are often the best published record of what a collection holds.

Before you visit

  • Confirm opening arrangements, temporary closures and photography rules directly with the institution before travelling — this encyclopedia does not record them.
  • Working clocks and automata may be demonstrated only at set times.