$13,000
Sold
sold
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Description
17"(43 cm.) Balanced upon the top rung of a wooden chair is a paper mache monkey with
well-detailed painted facial features,glass eyes with leather eyelids,hinged jaw with two rows
of teeth,carton torso and legs,wire upper arms,metal hands,wearing silk troubadour
costume,and carrying a wooden mandolin. Condition: generally excellent,mechanism and
music function well,slight paint flaking of chair seat finish. Comments: Gustav Vichy,circa
1890,the amusing automata has eccentric mechanism; when wound,music plays,he moves his
head in a circular and nodding motion,blinks eyes,opens and closes mouth as though
singing,and strums the mandolin. Meanwhile,the chair tips side-to-side and then backward as
though about to fall over,but always returns to upright just in time. Value Points: rare and
delightful automaton with artistic sculpting and painting of face,seven animations.