Passed
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Description
32" (81 cm.) Standing casually upon a velvet-covered flat base with one bare foot flat and the other posed on tip-toe is a handsome ebony-complexioned man with early style paper-mache/kidskin head with oil-painted features and complexion,brown glass eyes,articulated lashes,mohair lashes,ivory teeth,black fleecy hair,moustache,goatee and brows,gutta percha hands with articulated fingers,carton torso and paper-mache legs and bare feet. He is wearing a bronze silk shirt with blue silk tie,magenta silk satin jacket with silk collar and lapels,silk short trousers,earrings and carrying a maple wooden flute. Movements and Music. Raising the flute to his lips while simultaneously lowering his head. his fingers play the flute,each finger independently of the other in an extraordinarily lifelike manner. His hands are made of gutta percha so as to be subtle,yet firm enough to support all the interior linkages and springs for finger animation. Then,finishing his tune,he lowers the flute,blinks both eyelids as though in reverence for the music,turns his head from side-to-side,and moves his lips as though announcing the next tune. There are two tunes that are played in accordance with the action. Gustave Vichy,circa 1878,the automaton appeared as "Flutiste Ethiopien" in the Vichy historical catalog and was a deposed model by that firm,marked G.V. on the winding key. It is likely that the luxurious model was aimed at the wealthy international clientele that visited Paris during the 1878 International Exposition.