Passed
Description
30" (76 cm.) Standing upon a velvet-covered wooden base is a horse jockey,having a paper-mache head,glass eyes,articulated eye lids,hinged jaw,painted teeth,blonde mohair wig,carton torso and legs. He is wearing a silk jockey jacket and has kidskin pants fitted to the paper-mache torso and legs. His black paper-mache boots have shaped brown rims,and he has a molded jockey cap with painted stripes and little brim. He has a cigarette holder in one hand,and a horse crop in the other. Movement. As though contemplating a successful ride,the jockey stands,then turns his head and nods,while blinking his eyelids. He draws the cigarette to his mouth,which opens and closes in synchronic movement with the smoking process,and inhales. Turning his head again,he exhales. The smoke is actually driven through a bellows-activated rubber tubing hidden inside his torso and arm. Roullet & Decamps,circa 1890,the automaton appeared in the firm's early catalog as model #184. The "smoking" automaton figure was a popular theme in the Roullet & Decamps catalogs; the firm also offered Americain Fumeur,Negre Fumeur and Anglaise Fumeur.