Passed
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Description
19" (48 cm.) h. seated upright x 24"l. x 12"w. Posed in a refined and elegant manner upon a silk-covered wooden-framed recamier with fringed decorations and velvet pillow,is a bisque-head lady. She has a bisque portrait face with slender and elongated facial modeling,aquiline and upturned nose,blue glass paperweight eyes,closed mouth,and fine painting of features. Her brunette mohair wig is arranged in upswept coiffure of the era,and she wears a sheer muslin ruffled over-dress on green silk satin,trimmed with red silk ribbons over her shapely elongated carton torso and slender legs daintily crossed at the ankles. The square-cut neckline of her gown is designed to show her separately modelled shapely bisque bosom to advantage. Movements and Music. As though welcoming a visitor to her salon,the elegant lady turns and nods her head,appearing to arise,while alternately fanning herself with her right hand,and dabbing her face with the handkerchief held in her left hand. She pauses,and then reclines again,evidently having satisfied the social demands of her high station. Music plays. The movements are actuated by three brass cams plus two steel stud-cams within the clockwork mechanism,the movement having attached L.B. winding key.Leopold Lambert,circa 1890,with bisque portrait head commissioned from Emile Jumeau. The Jumeau head,a very rare luxury model from that firm,affirms the luxury nature of the piece,as does its rarity; few other examples of this automaton are known to exist . A variation of the lady in recamier was shown in the Roullet et Decamps catalog,although it was only half the size of this luxury example.