Automatic for the People

Page 1

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

FOR T

www.vintagexplorer.co.uk

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

www.bonhams.com

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.

the ge’s Robby A ic m to A elegance, From the y r tu n e -c 8th e Robot to 1 ompass th c n e ta a m to e vintage au us – and th io r te s y m l, r ming magica utter ly cha

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

ve / October-November 2014 / 35


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Automatic for the People by VE Magazine - Vintage Explorer - Issuu