Helmut Kowar
The Walbaum Cabinet belongs to the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (art history museum) of Vienna. It takes its name from Matthaus Walbaum (1554-1632) to whom the bas reliefs and decorations of the cabinet are attributed.
The cabinet consists of three parts: the base houses the organ works, above it a pavillion like architecture opens its doors to a hall with a dancing lady in it, and on top a clock is placed. The organ works contains two 17 note ranks of wooden pipes, one rank of stopped flutes and one rank of open flutes. A wooden barrel contains two tunes which are manually selected by shifting the keyframe.
This instrument is featured in an article by Helmut Kowar appearing in the May/June 2013 issue of Mechanical Music.
The photo is courtesy of Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, all rights reserved.