#25

American Musical Automaton "The Ice Skater" by Witt
Live Auction

$2,600
sold
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Description
13" (33 cm.) A handsome man,with sculpted and painted facial features,wig and moustache,is presented on a flat-based platform designed to appear as though a skating rink.Movements and Music. The skater circles the rink,pirouetting,his left leg moving to and fro,his upper torso balancing side-to-side and his head also looking from side-to-side. His movement is simple,yet graceful and elegant. The music is provided by a Reuge,single-tune,28-note movement that doubles to drive the animation. Bill Witt,circa 1971. The late Bill Witt was the primary restorer of antique automata for collector Murtogh D. Guinness during the 1960s. Those antique pieces inspired him to create his own automata. The sculpted/carved and painted wooden head of the Ice Skater is actually a self-portrait of Witt. He created another that is today in the Guinness Collection at the Morris Museum.