The Ricky Jay Collection

The Ricky Jay Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 32. (Automata) | "Mechanical Figures, As Large as Life, Moving and Working by Machinery".

(Automata) | "Mechanical Figures, As Large as Life, Moving and Working by Machinery"

Auction Closed

October 28, 08:54 PM GMT

Estimate

600 - 800 USD

Lot Details

Description

(Automata)

A group of three handbills


Rosherville Gardens ... Mechanical Figures, As Large as Life. Lambeth: Turner & Harrison, [ca. 1860s]. Letterpress handbill (252 x 95 mm). Woodcut royal arms to head; a few creases. — Wonderful Talking Machine. [London]: np, [1870]. Letterpress handbill (250 x 125 mm). Printed on green paper, large woodcut depiction of the automaton at center. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglass. — Hercules! The Iron Giant. Salem: np, [ca. 1894]. Printed on orange paper, woodcut vignette depicting the automaton and a horse track, type printed vertically and horizontally; old fold, clean closed tear along fold, chipped to left margin, left margin repaired.


Three attractive handbills for automata exhibitions, including one for Professor Faber's "Wonderful Talking Machine," of which Ricky Jay wrote: "[Alexander Graham] Bell's imagination was sparked by yet another speaking machine: the 'Euphonia' of Joseph Faber, who was billed as the 'Premier Calculator and Land Surveyor to the Emperor of Austria.' The talented, troubled, and elusive Faber is not easily chronicled and his speaking machine not easily categorized; it was both a remarkable technical innovation and, for intermittent periods, a performance sensation ... [Faber] played a concealed keyboard to make his figure enunciate not only words but also phrases, sentences, and even simple songs. According to a newspaper advertisement of April 8, 'it has held conversations sufficient to fill a volume'" (Exemplars).


Sold as group lot, not subject to return.


REFERENCE:

Exemplars, p. 171

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