$16,000
Sold
sold
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Description
36"(91 cm.) h. x 32"l. x 15"h. Posed upon a wooden rectangular
platform with paper cover to simulate inlaid floor are two
women,one a standing healthy looking woman with smiling
face,fashionably dressed in 1914 era walking suit and
bonnet,and the other a tired looking seated woman dressed in
day robe and cap. Each has paper mache head,glass eyes,leather
eyelids,wig,carton torso,leg and arms. The standing woman is
holding a bottle "Pink Pills"and the seated woman holds a tiny
pink pill. When activated,the standing woman proffers the pill
bottle with one hand and exclaims its virtues with the
other,while the seated lady then takes the pill. A publicity card at
the front "Dr. Williams Pink Pills for Pale People"moves up and
down. Condition: very good,presentation excellent,internal
bellows part of mechanism needs recovering,otherwise
functioning well. Comments: Phalibois,from his series of
electrical automata for advertising purposes,circa 1890. Dr
Williams Pink Pills for Pale People was an actual patent medicine
that was introduced about 1890 claiming to cure "all sorts of
illness in male or female"and was eventually distributed in more
than 82 countries including the US and its native Canada.