France, depicting a praying figure with carved and painted wood head, glass eyes, articulated jaw, torso with brass bedplate carrying multiple movements from ten levers, including head, lateral and vertical motions of the arms, right arm articulated at the elbow and wrist, carved wood legs articulated at the hips, knees and ankles, in sculpted papier-mâché grotto with faceted glass waterfall, altar with crucifix and books, roots, foliage and cavernous ceiling supported by twisted branches, on oval ebonised base with brass feet, figure 11 ¾ in. (29 cm), total 33 ½ in. (86 cm), restored working condition, stream sticking. – There are three separate movements: a going-barrel automaton movement driving pinned wood barrel, fourteen cams, pulley and gong with two hammers, a four-air key-wind cylinder musical movement No. 9381 and an eight-day clock movement stamped "Boviller, Paris", with platform escapement, count wheel, strike on bell and 3 1/2-inch enameled Roman dial. – A four-gear train with rack-and-pinion concealed in the rocky landscape enables the figure to rise from a seated to a standing position and then fall to his knees before the crucifix as he performs his mea culpa with a series of complex hand gestures, bows his head and moves his mouth as though praying aloud. The movement is accompanied by the sound of gongs signalling the matins and the waterfall twisting at the figure's side. A timed stop/start button shuts off the movement after a complete cycle. – The automaton bears a strong resemblance to the portraits of St. Francis kneeling in meditation by 'El Greco' (Doménikos Theotokópoulos, 1541–1614) painted from 1585–1590. In the paintings the hermetic saint is shown kneeling before a crucifix which stands beside a skull and a devotional book on a rock altar. The St. Francis Clock replicates the posture of the saint, the crucifix, book, cave and the earthy palette of the painting. – The clock was presumably built as a special commission as the devotional subject is highly unusual for a 19th century automaton and no other example of this piece is known. – A rare and remarkable automaton clock.