Passed
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Description
39" (100 cm.) An elegant woman of society is posed standing in front of a wood-framed cheval mirror,wearing an Edwardian style blouse and fitted long skirt. The woman has a paper-mache/gesso head,upswept blonde hair,and carton body with shapely female form. The arrangement is posed upon a wooden platform with tapestry carpet,the platform containing the elaborate mechanism. Movements and Music. She powders her nose with her right hand and raises her left hand to her hair,then turning to gaze toward on-lookers,her breast gently rises and falls as though breathing. Throughout,the mirror is also turning such as one might angle a cheval mirror back and forth,creating a myriad of different views of the woman and her actions. Two tunes are played. The mechanism is contained in the cast-iron framed wooden base and driven by a large clockwork spring motor with eight large wooden cams. Henry Phalibois,circa 1905,the model was known as Femme a la Psyche (Lady at her Mirror). Few examples of this spring driven model are known to exist. This example,which has always been driven by a spring motor,is an extremely rare early version of a similar electrified model which appeared after 1910; an example of that appears in the Musee de l'Automate in Souillac,France.