• 1. What was hidden under the Museum
• 2. Before Zagreb
• 3. Finds at the Site of Discovery
• 4. First Recorded Use of the Name of Zagreb
• 5. The Royal Free Town on Gradec
• 6. Conflict, Punishment, Prejudice
• 7. Medvedgrad
• 8. The Ottoman Threat
• 9. The Emblems of the City
• 10. Laška Ves and Nova Ves
• 11. Kaptol
• 12. The Building of the Cathedral
• 13. The Main Portal of the Cathedral
• 14. The Interior of the Cathedral
• 15. The Restoration of the Cathedral by Bollé
• 16. The Parish and the Parish Church of St. Mark at Gradec
• 17. The Baroque Altars of St. Mark’s
• 18. The Guilds of Gradec and Kaptol
• 19. Master Craftsmen of Gradec and Kaptol
• 20. The New System of Municipal Government
• 21. Religious Orders Encourage Piety and Education
• 22. The Poor Clares of Zagreb
• 23. Veneration for the Blessed Virgin Mary
• 24. Magnates at Gradec
• 25. Parks and Walks
• 26. Life in the Lower Town
• 27. The Time of the Croatian National Revival
• 28. Ban Josip Jelačić
• 29. From the Homes of Zagreb People during the Biedermeier Period
• 30. Civic Societies and Clubs
• 31. The Foundations of the Modern City
• 32. Ilica Becomes the Main Commercial Street
• 33. From the Photographic Studio
• 34. The Lower Town
• 35. Theatre Life
• 36. Public Utilities
• 37. Life in Associations
• 38. Sensations from the Beginning of the 20th Century
• 39. Echoes from the Battlefield
• 40. House and Life
• 41. The Second World War
• 42. In Socialist Reality
• 43. The Zagreb School of Animated Film
• 44. Zagreb in Independent Croatia
• 46. The Study of Ivan pl. Zajc
• 45. Echoes of Events in Zagreb
• 47. August Šenoa and Zagreb
• 48. Tilla Durieux and her Art Collection
• 49. The Collection of Mechanical Musical Automata of Ivan Gerersdorfer
• 50. Dr Ante Rodin''s Collection of Old Packaging

Permanent Display 49. The Collection of Mechanical Musical Automata of Ivan Gerersdorfer

Online Collection


An impassioned life

Ivan Gerersdorfer (1927-1993), a Zagreb man of the old style, well-known for the white Lancia he drove, was a top clockmaker, an initiator of exhibitions, an impassioned collector and restorer of musical automata, which he wrote about in short accounts in the periodical press. His mother, Vera Meid, (1889-1955) was an opera singer, and his father Ivo (1897-1953) had a hat factory.

Ivan Gerersdorfer was a passionate collector of musical automata, wanting to make his collection show the development of the mechanical automatization of music.

His unique collection, although it shows items of varied provenance, is a part of the Zagreb cultural milieu and documents the level of the way of life of Zagreb and the culture of its inhabitants.

Donation

In 1977 Gerersdorfer gave his collection of mechanical musical automata to the city of Zagreb. In 1994 the city authorities decided to confide it to the Zagreb City Museum. In 1949, on the basis of the Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities Protection Law, a protection order was placed on it, and in autumn 1966 the collection was opened to the public for the first time.

Slavko Šterk























Online collection


Related publications

Gerersdorfer, Ivan. Musical automatons cabinet : the Ivan Gerersdorfer Collection.
Zagreb : Regional Institute for the Protection of Monuments of Culture ; Associated Self-Managing Interest Union for Culture of the City of Zagreb, 1970









1814-1914 : 100 Jahre mechanische Musikautomaten : Sammlung Ivan Gerersdorfer Zagreb, LP j&Co 1012.
Marburg : Janko Jezovšek, 1977










1814-1914 : 100 Jahre mechanische Musikautomaten : Sammlung Ivan Gerersdorfer Zagreb : Opernmelodien, LP j&Co 1013.
Marburg : Janko Jezovšek, 1977










1814-1914 : 100 Jahre mechanische Musikautomaten : Sammlung Ivan Gerersdorfer Zagreb : Phonola, LP j&Co 1014.
Marburg : Janko Jezovšek, 1977










Music out of a Box : a selection from the repertoire of the mechanical musical automata of Ivan Gerersdorfer / edited and written by Maja Šojat-Bikić.
Zagreb : Zagreb City Museum, 2010
(audio CD-ROM)









Related articles

Podgorelec, Sonja. A Cabinet of Music Machines. // Zagreb Airport Magazine, 38(2009), p. 16-22.