05-03-200505-03-2005
Skinner Auctions
Skinner AuctionsBolton MA
2283
May 3, 2005 10:00 AMCalender
120

Exceptional Picture Automaton by Bremond

Sell one like this
$24,675$21,000
Auction: Clocks, Watches & Scientific Instruments - 2283Location: BoltonDate / Time: May 03, 2005 10:00AM

Description:

Exceptional Picture Automaton by Bremond, c. 1860, of a carpenter's workshop with four figures, three with hand tools and the fourth working a treadle-operated grinding wheel, in rustic open room setting of carved and painted cork, the back wall hung with two band-saws, rack with chisels, block and square, and other tools including mallets, chisels and planes on the central bench, a window and a spiral staircase in the wings to the left and right, the timbered roof in simulated brick and stone outer walls with climbing plants and ivy flanking the scene, in gilt frame with maker's plaque B.A. Bremond, Manufacturer, Geneva, Switzerland and label inside the frame, on boxwood-strung walnut veneered plinth containing six-air keywind mandoline movement with BAB harp stamp on the governor-cock, Bremond plaque, and brass winding arbor engraved with arrow directional and control plate engraved B.A. Bremond, Fabricant, Geneve, 25 1/2 in. wd. x 23 1/2 in. ht., (the frame sides and plinth base repolished, and the cylinder movement (only) cleaned, in otherwise excellent original condition.)

Provenance: Property of the late Brian Etches, a skilled musical box restorer whose wide interests also spanned toys, and vintage cars and aeroplanes. Brian acquired the automaton in the 1970s and until 2004 it was displayed in his toy museum at Arne in Dorset, England.

Note: The sequence of movements is unusually complex and lifelike, giving the impression of actual, irregular work. The ten separate movements are powered by a large brass going-barrel motor driving a camshaft with five wood wheels (four pinned, two double-pinned) and six levers. The figure on the right turns his head and beats a chisel with his right hand to the accompanying sound of hammer blows; the central figure bends from the waist, lowers his head and moves the plane with a simultaneous sliding motion of both hands; the figure on the left saws with two movements of the right hand while occasionally looking up and down; the figure on the far left operates the grinding wheel with two movements of the right leg while looking from side to side. The cylinder movement plays part of the William Tell overture and five other popular and operatic airs.
The figures are all carved and painted, each face with a distinct expression. The sleeves and moving parts of the costumes are of white leather, and the waistcoats and non-moving parts of a painted and stiffened leather. The three-dimensional scene is more detailed and the movements subtler and more complicated than usually found on picture automata of the period, many of which were made in France by the Tarin factory, the majority in lithographed paper. Another important difference is that this picture was designed to stand on a table; with its brass washers on the side of the frame and the walnut plinth base, the construction is unmistakably that of a musical box - rather than an automaton - maker. Whether intended as an exhibition piece - the maker's name appears no less than five times on the case and movement - or to entertain prospective customers in Bremond's own workshop, this picture was clearly made to impress and may be the only recorded example of an automaton by a musical box maker.
Estimate $20,000-30,000

Keywords

Brian Etches, hand tools, carpenter , United Kingdom, Dorset, William Tell, France, Tarin factory