$615
"Mechanical Life Picture" Automaton of President Grover Cleveland, J. Ottmann Lithographing Co., New York, c. 1900, colored lithographed cardboard scene of Cleveland and his wife fishing along a brook, both figures with animated heads, right arms, and fishing rods, a small African American boy pops out of the cluster of rocks in the bottom left corner, President Cleveland with swarming mosquitoes around him, and a herd of onlooking deer in the background, signed bottom right J. Ottmann N.Y. , in a gilt-gesso frame, brass clockwork mechanism with weighted steel rods, sliding rear panel with original directions label, wd. 13 3/4, ht. 13 1/2, dp. 5 in. Note: President Cleveland and his wife, Frances Clara Folsom, honeymooned in Deer Park, Maryland. Life magazine from August 1886 includes illustrations of the two fishing while on that trip. This lot may depict the pair's activity during that stay.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2015-04-25
