Lambert Automaton of a Clown Playing the Mandoline

Description:

Lambert Automaton of a Clown Playing the Mandoline, the papier-mache head with painted heart, club, diamond and spade motifs, fixed brown glass eyes with lashes, arched and shaded brows, open mouth with inset teeth and articulated tongue, and gray mohair wig, sitting cross-legged on painted fretwork stool, on velvet-covered base containing the five-cam going-barrel movement playing two airs (on one revolution) and causing the clown to look up and down and from side to side, while strumming the mandoline with his right bisque hand and lifting the neck of the instrument in his left, raising each leg separately and then both together as he bends from the waist, looks down and then sticks out his tongue at the audience, in the original dark green silk brocade costume beneath red satin bolero jacket trimmed with metal-thread and sequins, black stockings and silk slippers, ht. 22 in., eight movements, with Lambert stop / start and brass LB key, (original condition and paint, good movement and tone, fabric worn on base, knees and sleeves).
Provenance: Mechanical Music, Automata and Technical Apparatus, Christie's South Kensington, October 2003. The automaton's former owner acquired this piece from a street vendor at the Marche aux Puces St. Ouen de Clingancourt, Paris, in the 1960s. See color plate p. X.
Estimate $8,000-12,000

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