Passed
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Description
33" (84 cm.) h. x 29"w. 15"d. Standing upon a large wooden platform with pale golden velvet cover and with a velvet-covered balustrade,pedestal and urn in the background is a rakishly smiling handsome black-complexioned man with paper-mache head,glass eyes,articulated eyelids,hinged jaw with painted teeth,wiry black hair and goatee,slender carton torso and legs,paper-mache hands,wearing a silk patterned shirt and patterned velvet breeches,leather shoes,and holding a five-string banjo. Alongside is his young companion,having black-complexioned paper-mache head,glass eyes,black fleecy hair,carton torso and legs,wearing brown velvet suit,and carrying a wooden hoop. Movements and Music. Standing proudly,the Banjo Player is the star performer. He turns his entire body from left-to-right as though swaying to the music,strums his five-string banjo,moves his head from side-to-side and taps along to the music with his left leg,blinks his eyelids and opens and closes his mouth as though singing along,all the while ignoring his young companion who is making his own attempt at entertaining the on-lookers. The young boy swings his hoop to and fro,lifts his right leg,then his left,and then he leaps entirely up in his attempt to jump the hoop - alas,never succeeding. Two tunes play. There are a total of 11 animations deriving from just 9 wooden cams on the inside. Henry Phalibois,Paris,circa 1910. The animations are very untypical and no other example of this model is know to exist.