Modeled as a young black woman sitting on the back of a chair, with plaster-composition character head, defined cheekbones, smiling mouth, brown paperweight eyes, articulated eyelids, lower lip, shoulders and legs, the chair base containing large-going barrel motor driving seven cams (one disconnected) and single-air cylinder musical movement, dressed in gold satin tailcoat with velvet-lined lapels, large sequined buttons, waistcoat, lace ruff and black knee-length breeches, ht. 40 in. (102 cm). With brass acorn-form stop/start and fixed key. The underside of the chair with repairer's initials and date of 1897. – The banjo player looks from side to side, strums, shrugs her shoulders and taps her heels together while moving her lower lip as though singing and fluttering her eyelids flirtatiously. Good working condition. – The very rare companion piece to Vichy's "Eccentric Clown", which features a male clown playing a casserole pot as though it were a banjo. The automaton offered here has the same impressive proportions but depicts a young black entertainer whose expressive features and playful movements are characteristic of Henry Désiré Vichy's tenure as co-director of the family firm. – Literature: Auction Team Breker, 5. November 2016, Lot 520, for an example of the "Eccentric Clown". Additional information on this model is to be found in Christian Bailly, "Automata, the Golden Age", p. 248 and Mary Hillier, "Automata & Mechanical Toys", p. 137. – The only example of this model that we have seen to date!