With plaster-composition head, fixed brown glass eyes, open smiling mouth and snub nose, sitting on balloon-backed basket chair, swinging his right leg, a cigarette-holder in his right hand, on two-tiered wood base containing going-barrel motor, single-air musical movement and bellows, dressed in probably original purple velvet suit and soldier's cap, ht. 20 in. (50 cm). With steel key and later brass stop/start. Face and hands repainted, papier-mâché torso without back, base not opened for mechanical inspection, alterations. – The automaton depicts a young boy "learning" to smoke. He raises the cigarette-holder to his lips to inhale, then turns his head away, coughs, moves his left arm and swings his leg. The smoke is cycled from the cigarette holder, through the body and out through the boy's mouth. The automaton is in working order, however the bellows require an overhaul/adjustment in order for the figure to smoke. – Literature: Bailly, "Automata, the Golden Age", p. 110, for a similar model depicting a schoolboy on a top hat. – A smoking automaton with an unusual and amusing sequence of actions, worthy of sympathetic restoration.