Automaton of a Blackforest Potato Eater

Description:

Automaton of a Blackforest Potato Eater, signed on the underside P.A. Muller a Pau, Fecit 1922, the papier-mache figure in painted polychrome Bavarian costume, with articulated eyes and jaw, wielding a fork in his right hand and resting on a tree stump, a pulley in the base causing him to lift a potato from plate to mouth, his eyes to roll and his jaw to drop, the potato moving continuously on a piece of wire from the plate, through the mouth and the tree stump and back again, ht. 10 in.

Literature: This Potato Eater is illustrated in Chapuis & Droz (1958),Automata, A Historical and Technological Study, p. 126. Chapuis attributes the restoration to P.A. Muller, an early collector of automata, although it seems likely from the inscription that Muller was the maker.
Estimate $800-1,200

Keywords