Automatic for the People

C I T A M O T E L AU P O E P HE www.breker.com

FOR T

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A large impressive piece Siffleur by Phalibois, which whistles two realistic tunes while winking cheekily and pointing

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R

obots are so much a part of our cultural imagination that it’s odd to think that the word has existed in English for less than a hundred years. It comes from the Czech for “forced labour” and arrived with Karel Capek’s 1920 play R.U.R. His chronicle of “Rossum’s Universal Robots”, a mechanical slave class who rise up against humanity, became a smash international hit, playing in New York in 1922 – with Spencer Tracy making his Broadway debut as a robot – and in London the following year.

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This Japanese 1950s battery operated Nomura Mechanised Robot (Robby the Robot), sold for £480 inc. premium at Bonhams Knightsbridge in 2008

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homeware

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This musical automaton of a Silver Swan dates from 1773 and over the last century has become the icon of The Bowes Museum

“Designed to impress, these showy pieces contained all sorts of marvellous details – elephants raising their trunks, Tritons blowing shells, butterflies and birds taking flight, dolphins spouting water.”

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clashing monkeys of the 1950s and 60s but originally such fashionable ‘toys’ were seen, not as playthings for children, but as diverting talking points for adults.

Dominating the world of British automata, James Cox (1723–1800) was a jeweller, goldsmith, entrepreneur, showman and dealer.

He was the first known owner of the Silver Swan made by Belgian clockmaker JohnJoseph Merlin. The aptly name Monsieur Merlin created the life-size bird in 1773 and when Mark Twain saw it at the Paris International Exhibition nearly a century later, he wrote that it, “had a living grace about his movement and a living intelligence in his eyes.” Twain watched it, and said, “swimming about as comfortably and unconcernedly as if he had been born in a morass instead of a jeweller’s shop – watched him seize a silver fish from under the water and hold up his head and go through the customary and elaborate motions of swallowing it.” Equally impressed was collector John Bowes, who snapped it up and brought it home to County Durham, where it can still be seen doing its stuff at 2pm every afternoon in The Bowes Museum (or whenever you like on YouTube!)

The East India Company was one of James Cox’s best customers, presenting his highly ornate items as gifts to powerful rulers

In this magical world anything is possible.

A Drunken Chef cooks a cat, which comes alive and sticks out its tongue every time he turns his attention to the bottle

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In 1928, visitors to the Model Engineer’s Society of London even had an encounter with the ‘real thing’ when Eric the Robot stood in for the Duke of York to open its exhibition.

The mechanical man (with R.U.R. stamped on his front in case you missed the point) rose unsteadily from his chair, stretched out an arm for silence, and turned his head from side to side while he made a speech. Sadly The New York Times noted that, as an orator, Eric was, “the coldest and most lacking in magnetism.”

Eric may have been the first working robot, but he was by no means the first – or even the most impressive – mechanical man in history.

Since ancient times, automata – from the Greek, meaning things that can act by themselves – have fascinated writers and engineers alike.

Prolific Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci designed his own, rather more elegant, version of Eric in the form of a mechanical knight in armour. And his mechanical lion, designed to impress the King of France in the 16th century, was recreated five years ago and can be seen walking and tail-swishing online.

It was the German clockmakers who really excelled at the smaller automata, though, designing entertaining table ornaments in the form of ships riding on waves, carriages drawn by horses or windmills with revolving sails.

We have probably all seen the weird cymbal-

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This rare Magician Clown with surprises

by Leopold Lambert measures an impressive 24 inches in height

like the Emperor of China who held the power to grant or withhold trading rights. Designed to impress, these showy pieces contained all sorts of marvellous details – elephants raising their trunks, Tritons blowing shells, butterflies and birds taking flight, dolphins spouting water.

Another Cox work, the magnificent Peacock Clock, was acquired by Catherine the Great and still delights visitors at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Incorporating rock crystal, it features a jewelled peacock that moves and spreads its tail in a glittering arc.

Mass production made automata more affordable and the 50 years from 1860 to1910 is known as the Golden Age of Automata.

This period was dominated by French makers Vichy, Roullet & Decamps, Lambert and Renou, with the latter specialising in musical, magical performers. Each time one of Renou’s magicians raises and lowers a hat from the table, a different object appears – an apple, dice, an orange or a cup – as baffling and mysterious a trick as when performed by a human. Meanwhile one Lambert clown has a repertoire of nine movements: he turns his head, opens and closes his eyes, moves both arms, crosses and uncrosses his legs, leans forward and cheekily sticks out his tongue! www.vintagexplorer.co.uk

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Automaton of a child with a hoop emerging from a basket together with a juggling bear sold for £150 at Chorley’s in 2012

Christie’s 2003 sale of automata, included a walking bulldog, which realised £1,293, as did their pouncing lion – but the rabbit in a cabbage fetched £1,880!

Eric, the metallic monster had slanted yellow eyes, skin like a suit of armor, and the halting, unsteady movements of one of Frankenstein’s creations

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g n i y Bu a automat

COLLECTING EARLY automations can be an expensive business; at a recent Christie’s ‘Out of the Ordinary’ sale, this fabulous 19th-century Indian peacock automaton by Roullet & Decamps carried a staggering estimate of £15,000 – 25,000!

Other Roullet & Decamps’ loveable and amusing animal creations also include a cat who rises slowly from a milk churn to music, turns its head and licks its lips with an expression of extreme satisfaction before slowly descending again. Another is a delightful white fluffy rabbit worked by an ingeniously simple single-air movement.

Emerging slowly from the centre of a green fabric cabbage, it glances from side to side, chews a leaf, and raises his long fluffy ears. As an example of how variable prices for automata can be, depending on rarity and the actions performed as well as condition, in a Christie’s 2003 sale of automata in which a Roullet & Decamps walking bear went for £353, a walking bulldog and pouncing lion both realised £1,293 – but the cute rabbit in a cabbage fetched £1,880.

If that is a little above your price range, don’t despair, there are still charming bargains to be had out there. At a July 2011 Arts and Antiques sale at Chorley’s, Gloucestershire, one lucky bidder managed to secure the child with a hoop, pictured on previous page, emerging from a basket, plus a juggling bear, for just £150 the pair!

The most commonly found automata coming up for sale are from the massproduction of the Golden Age – late 19th century or early 20th – but do try to obtain some sort of provenance as clever modern fakes can deceive even the experts.

If you are more interested in the Vintage than the antique, your classic robot can still set you back a pretty penny. Bonhams sold the boxed Japanese Nomura batteryoperated robot (seen on page 35) very much styled on Forbidden Planet’s Robby the Robot for £480.

Whether you choose an elaborate snuffbox with a singing bird costing thousands of pounds, or a charming creature full of animation and character that doesn’t cost much but rapidly becomes a member of the family, these wonderful pieces never cease to entertain and – just as they were designed to do – make a great talking point. ve 38 / October-November 2014 / ve

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The perfect bridge partner! America had Mr. Televox, the mechanical man. He can be seen here making up the fourth player at the Huntington Hotel during the convention of the Pacific Coast Electrical Association in 1928.

An amazing late 19th-century Indian peacock automaton by Roullet & Decamps. The bird walks, turns its head left to right, stops to open and close the fantail plumage in a magnificent display

Watch online

Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, today’s automata fan has access to more superb working specimens than you could have expected to see in a lifetime before the internet came along!

Eric the Robot www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLmohGA19Ek Leonardo Lion: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNWE2AdfNuo Silver Swan: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOXqCuqDOiI Peacock Clock: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M3O_A6tmA8 Renou Magician: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUf8Q9TrdjM Lambert Clown: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzdNoRv9YIk

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