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Barnard’s Silver Swan

By Linda Tancs

The Bowes Museum is an art gallery in the town of Barnard Castle, County Durham, in northern England. Opened in 1892, it was built to house the art collection of John Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier. Not your average-looking gallery, it’s housed in a magnificent French-style château, boasting exhibitions of art, fashion and design. Its biggest boast may be the Silver Swan, an automaton dating from the 18th century acquired by John Bowes from a Parisian jeweler in 1872. The swan, which is life size, is a clockwork-driven device that includes a music box. It performs daily at 2 p.m. and additional times during holidays.

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