Fruit Seller Automaton

Description:

Fruit Seller Automaton, Gustav Vichy, Paris, France, c. 1870, a black magician dressed in a red silk waistcoat, gold ruffled shirt, and red velvet trousers stands holding a brass tray with an apple, a pear, and a peach, when the clockwork movement is activated, music begins and the magician turns his head, blinks his eyes and watches as the center pear opens to reveal figures dancing, then the peach opens to a white mouse running in circles, and finally the last opens to a monkey's head looking to and fro, opening and closing his mouth while comically blinking his eyes, all on a slightly raised plinth with silvered plate stating in part Aux Enfants Guiton Fab.Sages/...Paris, ht. 27 1/2 in.

Note: For a closely related example, see Christian Bailly, Automata, The Golden Age, 1848-1914, p. 73.
Estimate $25,000-45,000

Silk clothing worn and fragile, clockwork could use lubrication.


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