Posed upon a wooden base with velvet-covered side and unusual leather top is a wooden (composition?) head man seated at his shoe-cobbling post, a baby in a cradle at his side. The man has oil-painted features, glass eyes, closed mouth, gentle exspression, tin spectacles, thinning hair, block torso, composition legs with bent knee seated position, sculpted heavy black shoes, and wears a simple costume including leather apron. A carved wooden shoe is ready for his attention on the cobbling post, and he holds a hammer in his right hand. His left hand is holding the cradle in which is sleeping a little wooden baby.
Movements: He moes his head vigorously up and down, periodically strikes his hammer to the shoe, but continuously rocks the baby's cradle. periodically, the baby cries, achieved by a hidden bellows whose sound emanates from an open funnel at the side of the platform box.
Historical References: The maker is unknown. Although cobbler automata appeared in various catalogs of French firms, and also were featured in the catalog of the wholesale German distributor, Ernst Holzweissg, none included the unusual feature of the crying baby in the cradle. The scene is charming and well rendered. Circa 1890.