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     | The Trumpeter Clock
In 1857 a gentleman named Emilian Wehrle opened a clock factory in the Furtwangen area and soon began producing musical trumpeter clocks and flute clocks. Wehrle's clocks were of a very high quality in form and function and he won many technical awards over his lifetime. I have been fortunate to be able to restore a few of these and I'm amazed at the high artistic, technical and musical level of knowledge that went into each of these clocks. Trumpeter clocks of the period were very expensive and never sold in large numbers like the more popular and much cheaper cuckoo clock. Today these clocks are very rare and command very high prices.
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Trumpeter clocks are a very interesting cousin to the cuckoo clock.
Jacob Bauerle is credited with creating the first of these clocks sometime in
the mid 1800's. After some experimentation he came up with the idea of replacing
the cuckoo pipes with harmonica reeds. Mounted below the reeds was a small tin horn. The falling
action of the
bellow forces air through the reed and horn producing a sound
surprisingly close to a small trumpet. Instead of a cuckoo bird, a carved figure
with a horn would appear from doors on the front of the clock. The first clocks gave a simple
three note signal but later more elaborate musical trumpeters were
produced. His son Karl continued producing trumpeter clocks and later
produced the first musical flute clock. The flute clock was very similar to the trumpeter clock but
used organ pipes instead of the reed and horn. 