$38,188
Vichy Automaton Drunkard on Park Bench, with papier-mache character head, auburn mohair wig, brown glass eyes with articulated lids, and downturned mouth with articulated leather lower lip, seated with bottle in one hand, the other resting on the back rung of rustic green-painted bench, with going-barrel movement causing the figure to raise the bottle half-way to his lips, lurch from side to side so that his left arm slides along the bench back, while moving his right leg in scissor motion, looking around confusedly, blinking, mumbling to himself, then lowering the bottle as though lamenting its lack of contents, as his chest and stomach moves in and out billiously, accomapanied by two tipsy airs, in fitted wool suit, pleated shirt, felt hat and leather shoes, ht. 19 in., with Vichy key and "acorn" stop / start, seven movements. Literature: Bailly, Automata, the Golden Age , pp. 88, 226. Depicting a fashionably-dressed, but dissolute, young man sitting on a bench in the Jardin de Luxembourg or another fashionable park in Paris, the Vichy catalogue describes humorously the pochard's thwarted attempts to drain his last bottle, before losing his balance and tumbling sideways onto the bench, his attempts to talk to himself unequal to concealing the fact that "il est bie malade". Please note: Eastimate should be $30,000 - 35,000.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2007-10-28
