Rare Roullet et Decamps Automaton of the English Comedian Little Tich

Description:

Rare Roullet et Decamps Automaton of the English Comedian Little Tich, with papier-mache head modeled with beaming smile, rosy cheeks, shaded jaw suggesting "five o'clock shadow",mohair wig, and large blue eyes with articulated "dancing" eyelids, one hand holding felt top hat, the other thrust into his left pocket, his elongated wooden shoes resting on slatted oak base with large going-barrel movement driving single-air cylinder movement, three cams, a star wheel with two levers for (foot-tapping and winking motions),and a sprung axis running through metal tube in figure's left leg that enables his body to rotate left or right while simultaneously moving forwards and backwards, in the original two-piece plaid suit with outsized silk buttons, polychrome waistcoat, winged collar and yellow silk cravat, ht. 29 in.
Note: Little Tich stands leaning from side to side, blinking his eyes rhythmically accompanied by the alternate tapping of his extra-long boots, plunges forwards at an extreme angle (to the left or right),pauses to doff his hat, and then rights himself again . The performance is repeated with Little Tich leaning in the opposite direction to the previous occasion. Like other large Roullet et Decamps automata, the powerful spring is assisted by a large winding ratchet. The slatted base is made to resemble a stage, and acts as a sounding board for Little Tich's tap dance.
Provenance: The Jerry Cohen Collection, Sotheby's, 1993, lot 61.
Literature: Mary Tich and Richard Findlater (1979),Little Tich, Giant of the Music Hall. Bailly, Automata, the Golden Age, pp. 21, 142.
A rare example of an animated portrait whose inspiration was a real-life figure; other examples include Buffalo Bill and Nala Damajanti whose Charmeuse Hindoue act may have been the inspiration of "The Snake Charmer". "Little Tich" was the stage name of the Englishman, Henry Relph (1867 - 1928),whose diminutive stature (he was four-foot tall, had five fingers and a thumb on each hands, and six toes on both feet),outsized shoes, and seraphic smile won acclaim at English music hall and French cabaret alike. One of fifteen children of the landlord of the Blacksmiths Arms in Cudham, Kent, Relph made his stage debut in Gravesend at the age of twelve. He performances carried him across the world on 28-inch boots, in which he performed pantomime at Drury Lane, vaudeville in New York, and his celebrated "Big Foot Dance" at the Folies Bergeres in Paris. So famous did he become that his act was filmed in 1900 by Clement-Maureince, four years after the Lumiere brothers projected their first commercial film, and shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1900. His fame continued to grow. In 1911, Relph published an autobiography titled Little Tich (A Book of Travels and Wanderings), and, at the age of forty-two, was the first music hall performer to be made an honorary officer of the French Academy. The final performance of Little Tich was at the London Alhambra in 192. His trademark boots are purportedly displayed at his birthplace in Cudham.

Estimate $65,000-80,000

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