$8,500
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Description
21" (53 cm.) Seated upon a wooden bench is a young lad with paper mache head, deeply-scowling crying expression, brown glass eyes, brunette mohair wig, carton torso and legs in seated pose, hinge-jointing at left knee, metal upper right arm, bisque lower arms, and with an attached dunce cap with tall ears. A basket sits at his side with bread and napkins, and he holds a book in one hand and a cloth handkerchief in the other; and is dressed in raggedy silk and velvet school costume. When wound, his head turns side to side, his arm lifts the handkerchief to his face, and now and then, he nods, kicks his left foot, and his dunce cap ears flap up and down, while music plays. Condition: generally excellent, mechanism slightly sluggish, chip on left upper arm (under sleeve). Comments: Gustav Vichy, circa 1890. Value Points: rare automaton with intricate movements aptly depicts a commonplace schoolroom discipline of the late 1800s.