$6,500
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sold
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Description
30" (76 cm.) Arranged in a garden like setting on an ebony wooden base under glass dome, is a beautiful woman seated at her sewing machine, she with bisque portrait head, blue glass inset eyes, well-painted features, closed mouth, pierced ears, blonde mohair wig, original silk costume and coiffe, carton body, wooden hands in curled pose. The sewing machine has metal frame and wooden table top, movable wheels and treadle, and is arranged with a piece of fabric to be "sewn". When wound, music plays, and the lady "moves her head, arms and foot and the machine works in splendid imitation of a real sewing machine", as described in an 1884 advertisement by the Silber and Fleming firm of London. Condition: generally excellent. Marks: (original paper tune label "Musique a 2 airs" listing two tunes, illegible writing). Comments: Phalibois, circa 1885, the sewing machine had gradually gained societal acceptance in the mid-1800s, and this automaton is a fascinating glimpse at the newly emerging mechanized world. Value Points: most captivating scene with well-functioning music and movements.