Passed
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Description
30" (76 cm.) Standing upon a wooden platform with velvet-covered sides and slatted-wooden floor to simulate a stage floor,is a highly characterized man with gentle smile,oil-painted complexion with rosy make-up on nose,cheeks,ears and chin,brown glass eyes,articulated eyelids,closed mouth,sculpted details of forehead wrinkles,and brown human hair. He has carton torso and hands posed to be able to hold his hat,over-sized feet with painted black shoes,and is wearing a green woolen suit with purple lapels and red buttons,silk vest with double row of brass buttons,white shirt,and silk tie.Movement and Music. He stands as though on-stage,pausing before beginning his performance. Then he alternately taps his amusing over-sized feet,first one,then the other. He blinks his eyelids,bends amazingly far forward while simultaneously lifting his right arm,thus extending his hat to the audience. He,then,slowly raises himself while drawing his hat back to his body and finally stands,open-hatted,satisfied with his performance. Music plays throughout. Roullet & Decamps,Paris,circa 1910. The English stage performer,Henry Relph,billed as "Little Tich" was the realistic inspiration for this amusing automaton. The highly characterized face,unique to this model,aptly resembles photographs of Relph,as does his performance. Relph was a small man and his unique performance was based upon wearing shoes that were "half as long as he was tall". A popular performer in Paris as well as London,he became clubby with Montmartre society from which the inspiration for many automaton designs was drawn. The "Little Tich" automaton was apparently exhibited at the 1908 International Exposition of which one juror,Serre Telmon,wrote that "its elegance is equaled by its ingenuity...Little Tich accompanies his dancing,his gesture and his legendary poses with blinking of the eyes." Few examples are known to exist of this rare piece.