Rare Advertising Automaton of Denslow's Mother Goose

Description:

Rare Advertising Automaton of Denslow's Mother Goose, with painted papier-mache head articulated at the neck and beak, webbed papier-mache feet, original yellow cotton cape with fringe and ribbon border beneath openwork cape tied with a black ribbon, pantaloons and felt bonnet trimmed with silk flowers, standing on dark-green paper-covered wood base with printed gilt borders and lettering on four sides I am Denslow's Mother Goose, the wood body with hollow hooped back containing open-spring clockwork motor and counterweight causing the head to nod and beak to open rhythmically, ht. 37 in., (minor paper loss on base),with key; and a first edition of Denslow's Mother Goose, verses lettered by Fred W Goudy. 4to, [96] pp cloth-backed colored pictorial boards, spine lettered (soiled, edges quite worn, spine end frayed).
A rare advertising automaton depicting the eponymous heroine of William Wallace Denslow's picture book Denslow's Mother Goose, published in New York by McClure Philips in 1901. The life-size goose automaton is identical to the cover illustration of Denslow's book and was closely modeled from the artist's drawings. When wound, Mother Goose nods her head, opens and closes her beak rhythmically and produces – whether intentionally or by a quirk in the movement – an occasional clucking sound as the spring unwinds.

As the original illustrator of Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz, Denslow occupies a special place in children's book literature. His charming illustrations contributed much of the magic of that original work. Although the publication of Denslow's Mother Goose is well-documented, there is no special mention of a mechanical window-display during the period in which Frank Baum was also re-issuing his own Mother Goose in Prose.
The automaton is believed to have originally come from the owner's of Chicago department Store Marshall Field's, where it may originally have been displayed. The construction of the figure, with its body of carved wood and hooped back hiding the mechanism, reveal that this was not a serially-produced piece by a large-scale automaton maker, but probably a 'one-off' commission from a skilled toy maker. Denslow's Mother Goose may also be the earliest automaton created to advertise a published American children's book.
Estimate $15,000-25,000

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