Standing upon a velvet covered platform with wooden ball feet is a bisque-head doll with blue glass paperweight eyes, closed mouth, blonde mohair wig, carton torso and legs, bisque forearms. She stands behind a box-shaped table in which a special mechanism for the mouse is hidden; the table has fancy black pedestal and gold cloth cover, and a heavy board mouse cage with decorative painting is resting on top. The girl wears a blue silk embroidered dress with gold ball edging, and holds a rod in her right hand and the door to the mouse trap in her left hand. The doll is marked M, and there is a pencil inscription "souris" (mouse) inside the box base.
Movements: Two mechanisms operate in synchronism. Via the 1st mechanism, the girl lifts her head and then lifts her left arm to open the door of the cage. In perfect timing, the 2nd mechanism then operates: the mouse timidly emerges from the cage, pauses, whirls around and scurries back into the cage. At the same time the 1st mechanism causes the girl to lift her right arm as though chasing the mouse back inside. Music plays.
Historical References: The lineage of the French firm of Charles Eugene Rambour is more illustrious than one might imagine. When Leon Casimir Bru had sold his doll firm in 1884, he retained the rights to his articles de Paris patents, most of which featured mechanical "surprises". In 1891 Bru sold the articles de Paris business to Grandepierre & Souers who, in turn, transferred the business to Rambour in 1893. For the next seven years, Rambour continued the Bru articles de paris business, creating a series of delightful automata notable for "surprise" elements (such as a mouse emerging from its cage), many of which he illustrated in his advertising. Rambour's fin-de-siecle automata, whose lineage traces back to the great Bru, had all of the charm, if not the sophistication, of earlier automata markers.