The smoker of hookah. Seated automaton with... - Lot 82 - Drouot Estimations

The smoker of hookah. Seated automaton with legs crossed smoking. Head and hands in composition, glass eyes. The character raises the arm carrying the mouthpiece to the mouth, turns, lowers and raises the head, blinks and opens the mouth. The music is indicated, written with a pen on a BP 2 tunes label glued under the base. These are the melodies of the Grand Mogol by Edmond Audran, operetta created in 1877 and reworked in 1884. It must be the two tunes "I don't want you" and "allons et point de paresse". H : 44 cm. Key marked A.M. and 13 on the other side. We join the probable old pipe, remains of a mule. End of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century. Worn clothing and remade or restored, including the cap and mules. Wear to the hands. Mechanism working for the movements and music but to be revised. Screws on the bottom changed. The mechanism must be able to work to make smoke appear through the mouth and perhaps even ears like the smokers of Leopold Lambert who are usually sitting cross-legged. The face would be more in the line of the achievements of the house Phalibois. The automatons, being composed of mechanisms and being subject to wear, revisions and possible later changes of mechanical parts, are sold as such and no complaint could be formulated by the purchaser. The functioning cannot be guaranteed.