Contemporary Musical Automaton Portrait of John F. Kennedy by Ch

With plaster-composition character head, brown glass eyes and molded hair, seated at quarter-veneered writing desk with quill pen and a battery-powered brass lamp, dressed in blue-flecked charcoal wool suit, patterned tie and hand-sewn leather shoes, with single-air going-barrel movement in body playing "Happy Birthday", height 21 ½ in. (55 cm), base 12 in. x 17 ¾ in. (30 x 45 cm). With brass key stamped "CB" and "Olympia" ink-stamp on underside of desk. - References: Christian Bailly, "Automata, the Golden Age", pp. 74-75; Auction Team Breker, 30 May 2015, Lot 619 for another example of this piece. - Bailly portrays the 35th president of the United States engaged in official correspondence: a draft telegram to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The President's thoughts, however, appear to be elsewhere for - as the lamp light dims - he pauses and his head drops as though on the verge of falling asleep to memories of Marilyn Monroe and the bars of "Happy Birthday". Waking, he turns up the lamp and continues writing. - The musical accompaniment recalls Marilyn Monroe's unforgettable performance of "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" at Madison Square Garden, New York, on 19 May 1962 - just three weeks before her sudden death. - Whereas the flesh and blood President was a keen typist who wrote on an Underwood machine in his formative years as a congressman, the old-fashioned quill used by his clockwork avatar is a nod to Bailly's inspiration, the late 19th century automaton "Pierrot Ecrivain" by Gustave Vichy. - This contemporary automaton completes Bailly's political trilogy, after Presidents Barack Obama in 2013 and Vladimir Putin in 2014.

布雷克拍品等级是为了方便竞买人判断拍卖品的成色而设置的。布雷克等级用1到6级来标注外观和功能的成色，(从非常好到非常差)。 在目录图册里用括号里的2个数字来表示，前一个数字表示外观成色的级别，后一个数字表示功能成色的级别。如(3/2)表示外观成色是3(满意的)，功能成色2(好)。 成色 定义参照下列标准： 1 - 非常好 (未使用过，没有使用痕迹) 2 - 好 (新，极少的使用痕迹) 3 - 满意的 (普通的使用痕迹) 4 - 及格的 (明显的使用痕迹，某个非主要部件是后配的) 5 - 有缺陷的 (极明显的使用痕迹, 某个主要部件是后配的，功能上有缺陷，需要修理) 6 - 非常差 (严重破损, 缺少重要部件)