The Wire-drawing Bench of Augustus I of Saxony
The Musée National de la Renaissance has a unique and disconcerting work in its collections: the Wire-drawing Bench of Leonhard Danner. Made in 1565 for the Cabinet of Curiosities of Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, it is more than 4.4m long and magnificently decorated with marquetry.
Any doubts about how the bench works have been dispelled by an innovative and detailed digital research project supported by the Ministry of Culture which shows it to be a genuine technological masterpiece. This showpiece of the German Renaissance is today open to the public in a new museum display with an interactive multimedia tool: http://www.musee-renaissance.fr/bancdorfevre