Onsite
Highest Bidder
$14,000
Sold
sold
Click image to enlarge
- Estimate
- $10,000 / $14,000
Description
32" (81 cm.) Posed standing on velvet-covered wooden platform is a lady with portrait-like bisque head, brown glass paperweight eyes, lushly-painted lashes and brows, accented nostrils, closed mouth, pierced ears, blonde mohair wig, carton torso and legs, wire upper arms, paper mache lower arms, and elegantly dressed in rich silks and lace. She holds a paper mache tea pot in her right hand and appears to hold a tray with cup, sugar and cream in the left (actually hidden attached to her torso). When wound, music plays, the lady turns her head to and fro, and, alternately, emerging from their hiding places inside the tea set are three different animals. Condition: generally excellent, mechanism and music function well. Comments: French, circa 1875, attributed to Gustav Vichy with portrait bisque head commissioned from Jumeau. A paper tune label on the underside indicates two tunes including Excelsior Waltz. Value Points: rare and luxury musical automaton with most delightful secrets. Featured in the book The Rose Unfolds by Rosalie Whyel and Susan Hedrick, page 68.
Stuart's Take
An extraordinary automaton with extensive movements, early portrait head, and the most amusing surprises in each cup. Market tip: It's a buyers market for automata...a unique moment to obtain important pieces like this at far better openings than decades past.
French Musical Automaton "Lady Tea Server with Surprises" Attributed to Vichy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swKiuFw9Mvg&ab_channel=Theriault%27sDolls