"Chinoise Verseuse"（中国古代端茶侍者）音乐玩偶（出自Leopold Lambert），1888年前后

With unsigned Jumeau bisque character head with artist’s mark "L1”, modelled as a young Chinese woman with amber-tinted complexion, slender neck, high forehead and cheekbones, closed smiling mouth, fixed brown glass eyes, pierced ears, cork pate, original black mohair wig with gilt-metal ornaments, bisque hands holding a painted wood teapot and tea-service on a tray, on velvet-covered base with single-air goingbarrel movement causing the figure to turn and gently bow her head to the left and right, then lift and tilt the teapot as though pouring into the cups which she proffers with a sweeping horizontal movement, dressed in the original asymmetrical paisley brocade and gold satin costume with pagoda sleeves and metallic appliqués, height 19 in. (48 cm), with early brass Lambert key and stop/start (chip on left elbow covered by sleeve,
some losses on tea-set, base recovered in antique velvet). The beautifully modelled bisque head, described in Lambert’s catalogue as a "tête caractérisée", was presumably an exclusive commission from the premier French doll-maker, Emile Jumeau, since this particular face is found on Lambert automata alone. The decoration is similar in style to a series of dolls representing different nations produced by Jumeau for international expositions during the 1880s.

– Literature: Bailly, "Automata, the Golden Age", p. 348.