$11,750
Early Scene Mecanique Automaton of a Spanish Serenade, possibly by Phalibois , circa 1870, modeled as an enclosed garden with painted brick wall and path leading to a rustic gate, on the left a single-storey building of simulated stone with pitched shingled roof, grain-painted French doors and glazed window with lace curtains screened by a striped silk canopy, at the right a papier-mache tree with cut-fabric leaves shading a basket chair with incumbent elderly woman knitting, a bulldog at her feet, a matador strumming a lute at the gate, and a lady concealed in the inner room, the three figures with articulated carved heads and hands, original wigs and silk costumes trimmed with braid and gold Dresden paper, on three-tiered ebonized base containing the pull-string two-air cylinder movement with tune-sheet and large going-barrel automaton movement driving twelve wood cams with brass runners, two weighted see-saw levers (for the matador) and a painted-tin turntable to open the gate, ht. 24 in. Note: This exceptionally-complex piece has thirteen movements operated by tightly-cut wood cams arranged in three groups on an extended shaft to accommodate the length of the base and the long sequence of actions. The five cams closest to the mechanism operate the nodding dog and the old woman in the chair, who looks up-and-down while knitting with both hands to the clacking sound of the needles. When the gate opens and the matador emerges on the turntable, strumming the lute and nodding Read more…
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2005-11-03
