With plaster-composition head and hands, modeled as a young black boy with smiling expression, brown glass eyes, articulated eyelids and original mohair wig, sitting on the top rung of a white-painted chair that houses going-barrel movement playing two airs as the musician turns and nods his head, blinks, strums and lifts and crosses his right leg, dressed in silk shirt, string tie, light-blue jacket, sash and straw hat, height 22 in. (56 cm), with brass Vichy key and "acorn" stop/start. Good original working condition, well-preserved paint finish, early/original costume with later breeches. - Provenance: Auction Team Breker, 24 May 2014, Lot 553. Ex-collection of Jacques Damiot, No. VII in 1978 exhibition catalog "Automates Musiciens de Jacques Damiot" at the Palais Lascaris, Nice. Sixty-three automata from Damiot's collection were acquired by the town of Neuilly-sur-Seine and now form part of the Musée de Neuilly. - Literature: Bailly, "Automata, the Golden Age", p. 104. - A beautiful Vichy automaton with provenance from an early and historic French collection.