[Update: The movie Hugo, which I watched recently, reminded me of The Juvenile Artist described below.]
As usual, looking for something else, I happened upon the pages of Advertisements for June in an 1807 La Belle Assemblée. I was particularly charmed by this ad for an exhibition of automata—and thrilled to find a video of one of Maillardet’s works* on YouTube.
The Musical Lady. Video of an 18th C automaton made for Marie Antoinette.
*The Juvenile Artist. The Maillardet automaton.
The British Fortune-Teller. A modern magician automaton.
A Beautiful Bird. 18th C singing bird box.
For more automata, see my post on the singing bird pistols.
From La La Belle assemblée or, Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine, Vol. II. Publisher J. Bell, 1807
One of us -- 
4 comments:
FABULOUS!
Thank you ,Two NH Girls, as always, for finding the bestest bestest!
Happy February to you.
There’s a great book about automata: The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine by Tom Standage. I really enjoyed it.
I had seen the first ones before, having helped my daughter with a project on the Hugo Cabret, but I had never seen the singing bird box or the singing bird pistols! So interesting!
Sorry, I meant the Hugo Cabret novel.
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