$501,000
Exceptional Pair of Life-Sized Jean Roulet Blackamoore Musician Automata, depicting man with flute and a woman with pan pipes, standing cross-legged as they lean against papier-mache tree stumps, both with leather-covered papier-mache heads, brown glass eyes with articulated lids, open mouth mouths with two rows of bone teeth, and curly black wigs, the man with carved wood hands and articulated fingers, crank-wound spring-driven barrel organ in the body with eighteen-key action, 4 1/2-inch lg. barrel, four cams and twelve wood pipes, the woman with leather-covered papier-mache hands, rigid fingers, crank-wind spring-driven barrel organ in the torso with twelve-key action, 3 1/2-inch lg. barrel, four cams and twelve wood pipes, both in green velvet, satin and gold silk brocade costumes overlaid with metal-thread soutache braid and passementerie, on velvet-covered ogee bases, ht. 54 in., and faux marble plinths with gilt borders, overall ht. 72 in., the man with brass plaque of Jouets et Tabletteries, Maison Simonne, Passage Delorme, Rue de Rivoli, 188 . Note: The man lowers his head to play the flute, moves his fingers over the stops, while blinking and looking from left to right. At the end of each of the four tunes ( Les Cloches de Cornville, Mme. Favarit, La Carmago (?) , and La Fille du Regiment , he pauses, looks up, around and then bows his head and returns to his music. His companion raises the panpipes to her lips, and moves her head back and forth and two and fro acro Read more…
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2007-10-28
