$7,500
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sold
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Description
23" (58 cm.) Arranged upon an ogee-shaped ebonized wooden base is a romantic garden
scene featuring an aged flowering tree in the background and various shrubs and ferns upon
the painted ground. An acrobatic balancing bar is arranged center-stage and posed upon it is
a bisque head doll with sculpted hair and painted facial features,loosely-jointed wooden
limbs,and wearing a fine silk theatrical costume. Seated on either side are bisque-head
musicians with sculpted hair and painted features,one a lady with silk gown seated behind a
wooden painted harp,and the other a gentleman with silk costume holding mandolin. When
wound,music plays (two tunes) and the action commences: the acrobat dances across the
balancing bar,holding balancing rod,while the musicians play,moving heads and arms.
Condition: generally excellent. mechanism and music function well. Comments: Phalibois,circa
1865. Value Points: superbly-preserved luxury automaton with splendid details of costume
and setting,charming scene,preserved under original four-sided glass dome.