Passed
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Description
33" (84 cm.) A tableau arrangement presents a mischievous young man who has perched himself on the counter of his grandmother's kitchen cupboard. The cupboard is artfully crafted of lightly finished mahogany with bun feet,brass fittings and stained glass cupboard doors. The boy has a painted composition head with glass eyes,brown mohair wig,composition hands and carton body. He is dressed in a silk shirt and rich maroon velvet jacket and breeches,with brown socks and nicely cobbled leather shoes. He holds a biscuit in his hand.Movements and Music. The little boy is set upon finding jam for his biscuit. He reaches for the cupboard door which magically springs open. A fly appears and "flies" up the edge of the left-hand door,out of the boy's reach. It is then that he catches sight of the jar of gooseberry jam on the second shelf. But before he can reach it,the jam jar suddenly spins around,transforming itself into the white-haired,wrinkled facial image of his stern grandmother,her wire-rimmed glasses moving up and down on her nose and her jaw dropping in alarm as she begins to scold him for his act. In response,the boy gestures with his hands,nods and sticks out his tongue. The cupboard door magically closes shut,and a startled mouse appears scuttled from his hiding place behind an apple on the counter. There is an ingenious clockwork mechanism with seven cams that direct a seemingly greater number of movements. Two tunes play throughout.Michel Bertrand,Switzerland,1983. The automaton,commissioned from the artist by Jerry and Bunny Steinbaum,was modeled after the original Vichy automaton of 1910,and perfectly captures its flavor. Few examples are known to exist.