$6,000
Sold
sold
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Description
23" (58 cm.) Seated upon a velvet-covered wooden stool that contains the clockwork mechanism is a black-complexioned barefoot boy with carefree expression, paper mache head, brown glass eyes, mohair lashes, very handsome countenance, slightly parted lips with a row of teeth, black fleeced hair, carton torso and legs, hinged right knee, paper mache hands, wearing brown pants with rolled-up cuffs, silk jacket, plaid shirt, and brown cap. He holds a wooden banjo, and, when wound, he turns his head from side to side and nods, his eyelids open and close, he picks the banjo strings, and his leg taps, assumedly in time to the music which plays. Condition: generally excellent, mechanism functions although would benefit from refinement. Comments: Vichy, circa 1890, the automata was featured in an early Vichy catalog, named Petit Negro Jouant du Banjo, #599, and was noted as being deposed. Value Points: rare automaton with wonderfully modeled face, appealing movements and music.