Phalibois,巴黎产Das Affen-Photostudio罕见的木偶音乐盒

Paris, c. 1880, depicting an anthropomorphic photographer with Daguerreotype camera on tripod taking the portrait of his female subject who is seated, with mirror and fan, against a backdrop of holly leaves, potted plants and a whippet, both figures with papiermâché heads, carved hands and articulated eyes and mouths, on ebonised base with coin box and drawer on the front, going-barrel movement driving fourteen wood cams and replacement pull-string two-air cylinder movement of appropriate type and date, dressed in elaborate mainly original costumes trimmed with brass stars and Dresden paper, under glass dome, height 26 in. (66 cm) x width 23 in. (58 cm), with keys for the movement and the drawer, and placard with text "Figures Work by Dropping a Penny in the Box". The automaton and musical movements have been overhauled and are inexcellent working condition. The monkey with a magic lantern was a familiar figure in French popular culture and appeared many times in printed illustrations during the first half of the 19th century. The image came from a fable by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian which tells the story of a showman’s monkey, Jacqueau, who entertains an audience of farmyard animals with a magic lantern performance while his master is away. Here the idea is carried one stage further. There are fourteen separate movements. The photographer lowers his head as though framing his subject as a brass plate at the back of the camera rises and the lady fans herself, shakes her head and raises the mirror. The photographer then gestures to his subject with two movements of his right hand, the lady pauses in her actions and looks into the lens, the plate falls, the photographer raises his head, looks about and then reveals the "exposed" plate (a miniature watercolor portrait) to his subject, who nods in approval. Both figures blink and move their mouths meanwhile. The coin activation, box and drawer were almost certainly added in England during the first few years of the automaton’s life, possibly by the London wholesaler Silber & Fleming who illustrated Phalibois automata in their catalogues during the 1880s and advertised that for a cost of 20 shillings "mechanical novelties could be made up so that they performed with a penny in the slot action". – Literature: Mary Hillier, "Automata & Mechanical Toys", pp. 114–117. – A complex coin-operated automaton and humorous piece of early photographic memorabilia.