$11,000
Sold
sold
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Description
25" (64 cm.) Seated cross-legged on a
velvet-covered wooden platform is a paper-mache
man with dark complexion,brown glass paperweight
eyes,slightly parted lips,with paper mache arms
and legs,and having a clockwork and smoking
bellows mechanism in torso and platform; wearing
exotic costume of silks and velvet with metallic
trimmed slippers and red turban,and holding a
coffee cup in his left hand and the mouthpiece of
a hookah pipe in right hand which connects to the
hookah in which pipe tobacco is placed to create
the smoking action. When wound,he looks
side-to-side,raises the pipe,and bends his head as
if to inhale,leans back and then exhales,while
occasionally taking a sip of coffee. Throughout
two musical tunes play,"Ca c'est une chose" and
"C'est Paris". Condition: generally
excellent,smoking mechanism and music function
well. Comments: Leopold Lambert,circa 1890,the
automaton was described in his catalog as "Turc
Fumeur" (The Turkish Smoker).