For now sending the first of 5 photos of a very odd engine that came out of an old "manor house" in England, that was shortly going to be either restored, or demolished (I can't recall which, exactly). It was made to turn a shaft over a fire to cook meat (= a barbecue rotisserie).
"Spitjack engines" had already been in wide use far before the age of steam, and most were powered by either spring-driven clockwork mechanisms, or by gravity, via counter-weights (among other variations, including some powered only by the smoke from the cooking fire, somehow!).
This probably dates squarely from the 1890s, the pinnacle of the economic height of Brittania. Steam was king, and just like today, everyone wanted the latest high-tech gadgets, especially the Lord of the Manor. That apparently even extended to kitchen equipment - but this thing was probably fiddly, inefficient, and highly impratical, at best. I am guessing that whatever small number were made saw little use (or sales), and most disappeared into the scrap drives of first WW1, then WW2.
Stay tuned for additional photos, etc.