On 29 February 2016, in the Council Hall, the State Hermitage and Samsung Electronics presented the results of another stage in their joint programme Linking Times – Linking Technologies and their plans for 2016.
In May 2016, video films in ultra-high-definition (4K) format will appear in the exhibition halls, making it possible to view the museum's masterpieces and interiors in the finest details. To show these videos Samsung UHD Curved TVs will be installed in the Hermitage.
A work of decorative and applied art from the second half of the 18th century – the large mechanical bureau from Catherine II’s collection known as the Apollo Bureau – was presented for the first time after restoration. The bureau, made by the celebrated German furniture-maker David Roentgen, was brought to St Petersburg on 1 March 1784. It was intended to hold letters and was fitted with a large number of mechanisms used to open a reading-stand, flaps and drawers or to turn on music that was recorded on rollers. The unique mechanism was a genuine technological breakthrough for its time.
The collaboration between the State Hermitage and Samsung began in 1997. Since that time a programme for the technical support of the museum’s educational, research and excursion activities has been implemented. Throughout the period the company has provided equipment for the museum halls of the Winter Palace, General Staff, Schools Centre, Students’ Club and Press Service.
As Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, said: “The Hermitage and Samsung Electronics have developed their own form of joint activities: Samsung helps us to use wonders of technology to show the collections and takes part in the restoration of wonders of technology that are kept in the Hermitage.”
“Involvement in the Hermitage’s projects is a great honour. New technologies are helping people to study history and to enjoy the masterpieces of the past,” said Seungsik Choi, Vice-President of Samsung Electronics.
Since 2007 the State Hermitage and Samsung Electronics have been actively developing the joint project Linking Times – Linking Technologies aimed at the restoration of unique historical mechanisms that reflect the level of technical achievements of their time. Among the exceptional mechanisms restored with Samsung’s support are a large table clock with an organ that belonged to Catherine the Great and was made by the English craftsman Eardley Norton in 1792; a table clock with a musical mechanism made by James Cox in 1760; a long-case musical clock produced in the Roentgen-Kinzing workshop in Germany in the 1780s and the Cage Bird musical automaton with a timepiece made by the Swiss craftsman Pierre Jaquet-Droz in the 1790s.
The large mechanical Apollo Bureau (second half of the 18th century)
Historical information:
The large mechanical bureau was produced in the workshop of the famous German furniture-maker David Roentgen in the town of Neuwied and brought to St Petersburg with the first consignment of that craftsman’s furniture before 1 March 1784. It was specially made to demonstrate its creators’ extremely high level of craftsmanship. This masterpiece of cabinetmaking, intended to hold letters, was more like a mechanical toy and was equipped with a large number of contrivances that, as if at the wave of a magic wand, could be used to open a reading-stand, swap the places of little cabinets, open flaps and drawers or turn on music that was recorded on rollers. The mechanisms were created by Roentgen in collaboration with the mechanic Peter Kinzing and the musical craftsman Johann Wilhelm Weyl. The bureau undoubtedly amazed Russian spectators, who had never seen such pieces of furniture before. Reminiscences of contemporaries have survived in which they express delight at this mechanical curiosity. Roentgen achieved his goal: his work was a hit with his potential clientele. From that moment on, he became the chief supplier of furniture to Catherine II and the Russian court for decades.
