Automata and Mechanical Toys | 
 enlarge | Author: Rodney Peppe
Publisher: Crowood Press
Category: Book
List Price: $45.00
Buy New: $28.39
You Save: $16.61 (37%)
New (21) Used (7) from $28.39
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 262499
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 160
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 10.3 x 8.7 x 0.7
ISBN: 1861265107
Dewey Decimal Number: 688
EAN: 9781861265104
Publication Date: August 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: I20080825131308G
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Product Description
No other craft so brilliantly captures the magic of turning a handle, icking a switch, or pulling a lever to see the unexpected come to life. Automata and Mechanical Toys is a book for anyone drawn to simple, entertaining mechanics. The book features 21 leading makers, each with a distinctive style. With 160 color photos and 100 delightful examples of the craft, the book is a feast for collectors and enthusiasts. A substantial section of the book is devoted to making automata mechanisms, ideal for novices or those wishing to learn new techniques. Illustrated, step-by-step instructions explain how to make a bearings box, which separately houses all the main mechanisms used in automata. The box can then be converted to any mechanism you choose. Rodney Peppe is a winner of the British Toymakers’ Guild Toy of the Year Award; he has had exhibitions of his work at the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood. He is also the author of Rodney Peppe’s Moving Toys.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Excellent book! Great color pictures and diagrams June 10, 2003
Karl Williams (Kitchener, Ontario Canada)
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
This has got to be one of the best books on the subject of automata and mechanical theatre. There are lots of great color pictures and diagrams to build your own automata. Worth the money!
Clear directions and eye candy too. November 8, 2006
Jennifer L. Wolcott (Waterford, MN USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is the best book on automata since Flying Pig opened it's doors. Peppe shows how to build your own test board of mechanical movement and provides examples of the best current automata for inspiration. The "test board" is finely crafted, covers a wide range of movements and it's fun to play with too.
A Good Buy for Beginning Builders November 25, 2004
Brad Alan Sommers (Sunny Palm Beach, FL)
38 out of 40 found this review helpful
Depending on what your interests are, this can be a valuable addition to your library. It is not for collectors, in my opinion, and most of the examples are on the "folk art" side: crude, kitschy, and sometimes even made of junk. There are profiles of a few builders who make complex automata demonstrating fine craftsmanship, such as the wonderful Keith Newstead and John Grayson. I would have preferred to have some detailed explanations of how some of their automata work, though. The REAL strength of this book is if you are beginning to make your own automata and would like to have a "kit" to experiment with. The book contains full sized plans for an experimenter's "kit" which is really nice. I have Robert Addam's "How to Design and Make Automata" and CMT's book, but they both only have crude drawings with no dimensions. I made photocopies of the parts and then used Xylene to transfer directly onto plywood and cut the parts out on a scroll saw, saving a great deal of time and giving me a nice litte platform for experimenting. This alone makes the book a must have for the beginning builder.
A Must for Automata Enthusiasts! June 9, 2003
Dug North (Harvard, MA United States)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
This book is everything you could ask for in book on contemporary artistic automata.Each chapter has a brief summary of the topic in question -- say tools and materials. Next, each chapter moves on to showcase the work of two or three automata artists with many pictures and a page or two of information about each artist. The photographs of automata in this book are outstanding. You can really get a sense for the devices, their construction, and most especially, their finishes. If you love automata, want to see more of them, and want to learn about some of the top automata artists in the contemporary scene, this book is a must-have.
 Quite a nice book June 13, 2007
danny boy (Singapore)
The book certainly has nice and inspiring pictures of great automata. To a certain extent, some of the concepts of automata are defined. But largely, the chapters are devoted to eccentric and creative automata artists who inspire more by examples than theories.
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