KNAUSS, SELBSTSCHREIBENDE WUNDERMASCHINEN, AUCH MEHR ANDERE KUNST- UND MEISTERSTÜCKE, VIENNA, 1780

FIRST EDITION, 4to (215 x 153mm.), engraved portrait frontispiece (by Mansfeld) and 10 plates (9 folding), errata at end, woodcut ornaments, uncut, early nineteenth-century half calf gilt, some dust-marking to edges

bought from Helmut Schumann, Zurich, 1986

Tomash & Williams K53; Peter R. Frank & Johannes Frimmel, Buchwesen in Wien 1750-1850 (Wiesbaden, 2008), pp.179-180; VD18 10612114

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Knauss was a watchmaker and inventor of automata, including a clockwork musician that played a simple flageolet, and some sets of talking heads. Here the author describes and illustrates several automatic writing machines, designed to replicate handwritten pages simultaneously with the creation of the original, using pens and ink. Knauss's contraptions foreshadow the "Polygraph" machine that Thomas Jefferson used extensively from 1804, to produce copies of his signature. A later mechanical development is the "Autopen", used by Harry Truman, Kennedy and other American presidents (and celebrities); this reproduces a signature from a matrix originally created by the signer, but without the signer being present. Throughout the nineteenth century office-clerks used a completely different wet-transfer process to create retained copies of outgoing correspondence.