Bremond Tableau Mecanique of a Harpist

Description:

Bremond Tableau Mecanique of a Harpist, circa 1860, the hand-tinted lithographed paper figure with articulated head and hands, hair parted at the centre and arranged in a laurel garland, in flowing neoclassical costume tinted pale blue with yellow geometric borders, with pull-string two-air cylinder movement, No. 2253, driving a pulley connected to a pinned wheel with three self-weighted steel levers causing the harpist to gently nod her head and move her arms, appearing to pluck the strings, in giltwood frame with original French operating instructions and tune-sheet headed B.A. Bremond, Manufacturer. Golden Lyre House, Geneva Switzerland, Place des Alpes, Facing the Brunswick Memorial, 18 x 23 in.

Note: B.A. Bremond is well-documented as a maker and retailer of musical boxes but, until recently, was not known to have been involved in the making or selling of automata. Another picture automaton, of a carpenter's workshop, by the same maker, was sold at Skinner in Mechanical Music, Science & Technology, May 2005, lot 120.
Estimate $3,000-4,000

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