Depicting a pierrette equilibrist balancing on a glass ball with painted star motifs, in theater setting with curtain, stage and foot-lights and two boxes with an audience of Dean's cloth dolls. With fine Jumeau bisque portrait head (with artist mark "HVII") modeled as an adult woman with heart-shaped face, serene gaze, fixed brown paperweight eyes with lightly-shaded lids, aquiline nose, closed mouth and defined philtrum. She wears a cream satin outfit with gauze tutu, bicorn hat decorated with sequins and original brown mohair wig over cork pate. – Her shapely papier-mâché body, with defined waist and legs, contains the original non-operative going-barrel clockwork motor stamped "G. Vichy, Paris". A coupled electric motor causes the figure to turn and incline her head graciously as she strokes her bow across the violin strings. In marbled wood cabinet with glazed upper section and paneled base, figure 28 in. (71 cm), cabinet: approx. ht. 80 x wd. 37 x. dp. 39 ¼ in. (202 x 94 x 100 cm), ball repaired, hands repainted. – Described in Theimer's "The Jumeau Book" as a "unique and extremely rare portrait model," bisque heads of the type seen here were commissioned by Vichy and Roullet et Decamps for use on a series of larger automata, often incorporating a magical or fantasy element. An unusually beautiful automaton in a striking theatrical setting. – Provenance: Former collection of Atracciones Apolo, an indoor amusement park opened by Josep Vallés Rovira on Parallel Avenue, Barcelona, in 1935. One of the park's most famous attractions was the Museo las Maravillosas Figuras en sus Dioramas (Museum of Marvellous Figures in their Dioramas), a collection of 19th century French automata in fantasy settings designed and painted by the artist Martí Llauradó. – According to an article published by Edición del Domingo on 19 August 1990, the Apolo's automata museum closed in 1957. The automata were stored, forgotten, for almost fifty years until acquired by the Museum of Toys and Automata in Verdú. – References: "A Great and Magical Collection", museum catalogue, pp. 313–325; Ròmul Brotons, "Parcs d'Atracciones de Barcelona", pp. 143–147; Auction Team Breker, 7. November 2015, Lot 628 and 5. November 2016, Lot 530 for other Apolo automata from the series.