$8,750
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Description
20" (51 cm.) Standing upon a velvet covered base is a bisque bebe with blue glass paperweight eyes, lushly-painted eyeliner, lashes and brows, accented nostrils, closed mouth with shaded lips, pierced ears, blonde mohair wig over cork pate, carton torso and legs, wire upper arms, bisque forearms. She is wearing a luxurious ivory silk satin dress with lace and ribbon trim, matching feathered bonnet and silk shoes, and undergarments, and appears to be carrying a floral draped lidded woven basket (which is actually supported by a hidden rod from her torso). Inside the basket is a little feathered bird. Condition: generally excellent, music and mechanism function well. Marks: Depose Tete Jumeau Bte SGDG 4 (doll) (original paper tune label on underside indicating the music "La Mascotte". Comments: Leopold Lambert, Paris, circa 1890, when wound, the doll turns her head from side to side, and nods, while she alternately daintily sniffs the silk rose in her right hand, and then lifts the lid of the basket with her left hand, to reveal a little bird which flutters back and forth. Value Points: in perfectly-preserved original presentation, with elaborate costume and accessories, original tune label. Provenance: This automaton, as well as the next (#39) and #201 are being presented from the British/Canadian family of Kensington. Sir Alfred Kensington served for 37 years (1877-1915) in the Indian Civil Service, most notably as Punjab Chief Court Judge, and it was during this time, according to family oral tradition that he was gifted these automata by a prominent Indian which the family referred to simply as "the Maharajah". During the late 1880s, Indian royalty traveled to Paris, notably to the International Exposition of 1889, where they garnered finest treasures and gifts to be returned with them to their Indian palaces; that was likely the source of these three automata, which were then gifted to the British nobleman for his services and friendship. Upon his departure from India, Sir Alfred carried the automata with him, where they were stored in his Guildford, England home until the 1950s, then passed along in the family until this time.