Passed
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Description
39" (99 cm.) A troubadour with painted gesso-covered paper-mache head,glass eyes,articulated eyelids,carton torso,paper-mache legs,painted metal hands,is standing upon a flat velvet-covered platform. He wears an elaborate silk and velvet costume with cape,and red leather boots and holds a guitar in his hands. Balanced tip-toe on his nose is a miniature paper-mache headed figure,costumed as a masked harlequin.Movements and Music. His right hand strumming the guitar,the troubadour gazes upward,cautiously turning and nodding his head so as not to unbalance the harlequin. The troubadour's eyelids flutter. Meanwhile the harlequin pirouettes about. Music plays. Roullet et Decamps,circa 1885. A larger variation of the automaton appeared in the original catalog of that firm,model 157,depicting a peacock feather twirling on the nose of a clown. Provenance: ex-Cohen collection before its acquisition by Jerry and Bunny Steinbaum.