Last month Christie's auctioned off a matching pair of "mirror-image gold, enamel, agate, pearl and diamond-set singing bird pistols". The "pistols" are incredible. They were made by the Frères Rochat in the 1820s for the Chinese market and had an estimated auction price was $2.5 - $5 million. They sold for over $5,866,499! No description from me will do them justice, watch the video embedded after the jump.
[ Many thanks to Tim for emailing me the link. ]
Thank you. That set my day on a good start. The amazing pistol automatons! Some day, some Open Source buff will probably make a 3D-printed replica of these, IF he can get his hands on the incredibly complex, amazing mechanism…
1 
0But can it cycle Wolf ammo? – Oh wait, these aren’t even real pistols, still they’re very pretty in an ostentatious way. But I’m sure I can think up better ways of spending $5 million.
BTW Steve, as well as putting the US Dollar value of items, you might want to start listing product prices in the new currency of AR-15. Every gun forum is using this new currency which equates to $1000 = AR-15.
eg. $3000?! – I could buy three ARs for that price! For items that don’t round up or down to a grand total, please use the ‘some ammo’ denominator. eg. $2500?! – I could buy two ARs and some ammo for that price!
1 0These look better than that 8 million dollar Arab rifle. Also the narrator speaks like Microsoft Sam.
0 0An amazing level of craftsmanship went into these. What a blessing that they’ve survived in such excellent condition.
0 0@Matt G –
(Thanks for doing the math!)
0 0Spud gun. Iike the way you think. So this would be worth 5866 ARs and some ammo.
0 0Does this video auto-start for anyone else? Hate it when videos do that.
0 0Those are amazing!! I can’t imagine how many thousands of hours they must have spent on these. I am a little bummed they don’t actually fire.
0 0What an amazing piece of machinery!
0 0
These look better than that 8 million dollar Arab rifle. Also the narrator speaks like Microsoft Sam.
An amazing level of craftsmanship went into these. What a blessing that they’ve survived in such excellent condition.
@Matt G –
(Thanks for doing the math!)
What an amazing piece of machinery!
Spud gun. Iike the way you think. So this would be worth 5866 ARs and some ammo.
Those are amazing!! I can’t imagine how many thousands of hours they must have spent on these. I am a little bummed they don’t actually fire.
But can it cycle Wolf ammo? – Oh wait, these aren’t even real pistols, still they’re very pretty in an ostentatious way. But I’m sure I can think up better ways of spending $5 million.
BTW Steve, as well as putting the US Dollar value of items, you might want to start listing product prices in the new currency of AR-15. Every gun forum is using this new currency which equates to $1000 = AR-15.
eg. $3000?! – I could buy three ARs for that price! For items that don’t round up or down to a grand total, please use the ‘some ammo’ denominator. eg. $2500?! – I could buy two ARs and some ammo for that price!
Does this video auto-start for anyone else? Hate it when videos do that.
Thank you. That set my day on a good start. The amazing pistol automatons! Some day, some Open Source buff will probably make a 3D-printed replica of these, IF he can get his hands on the incredibly complex, amazing mechanism…