We appear to be illustrating why one could call these "Marmite clocks". GRIN!

I never really gave them a thought as something I'd have, not until the first one was offered me, as the clocks in my house have always been far more "serious" ones.

The mechanics are very clever, rods going this way and that in back of the case to drive the rather ridiculous automatons, the over-the-top carvings and paintings. They are really quite silly things that take themselves very seriously; "real" ones can easily cost north of a grand (USD) and the conversations amongst enthusiasts are quite high-brow and learned.

12 o'clock gets a bit noisy around here what with two "serious" clocks, old Seth Thomas chimers, sonorously tolling the hour in concert with the bellows sounds and mechanical clackings of these two cuckoos.