Automaton
1867-1872 (designed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This automaton was produced in Paris by the company Roullet-Decamps, most likely in the late 19th or early 20th century. It has a clockwork mechanism that, when wound with the key and released by pulling the pin at the back, starts a music box and causes the cat to turn to the front and peer out of the top hat, sticking its tongue in and out while doing so, before popping back into the hat.
Roullet-Decamps began trading in Paris in 1866, initially as a workshop specialising in cutting tools. It was around this time that many designers of automata began trading in the Marais, and Roullet exhibited his first production in the 1867 Exposition Universelle. Automata would become the main focus of the business and by 1889, when Decamps joined the business as partner, the company was employing 50 people in different workshops: mechanics, sculptors, seamstresses, artists and more.
Much of the automata produced in the Marais was aimed at a mature audience, depicting well known celebrities, activities such as smoking, and with music boxes playing popular music of the time. The nature of this clockwork, however, would have appealed to those young as well as old.
Roullet-Decamps began trading in Paris in 1866, initially as a workshop specialising in cutting tools. It was around this time that many designers of automata began trading in the Marais, and Roullet exhibited his first production in the 1867 Exposition Universelle. Automata would become the main focus of the business and by 1889, when Decamps joined the business as partner, the company was employing 50 people in different workshops: mechanics, sculptors, seamstresses, artists and more.
Much of the automata produced in the Marais was aimed at a mature audience, depicting well known celebrities, activities such as smoking, and with music boxes playing popular music of the time. The nature of this clockwork, however, would have appealed to those young as well as old.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 3 parts.
|
| Materials and techniques | Clockwork mechanism with moulded staff head, covered with animal fur, glass eyes and painted metal with ribbon decoration, contained within felt hat with leather inner band and outer ribbon. |
| Brief description | Fur and fabric cat in a hat clockwork automaton made in France by Roullet-Decamps in the late 19th century. |
| Physical description | Clockwork automaton plus two keys. Upturned red felt hat with a white fur cat figure that rises out from within and sticks its tongue out while a music box plays. Metal key with large open oval bow and long plain barrel. A second key ith short barrel and bow of a circle either side of the barrel. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Given by Richard Peter Pratt |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This automaton was produced in Paris by the company Roullet-Decamps, most likely in the late 19th or early 20th century. It has a clockwork mechanism that, when wound with the key and released by pulling the pin at the back, starts a music box and causes the cat to turn to the front and peer out of the top hat, sticking its tongue in and out while doing so, before popping back into the hat. Roullet-Decamps began trading in Paris in 1866, initially as a workshop specialising in cutting tools. It was around this time that many designers of automata began trading in the Marais, and Roullet exhibited his first production in the 1867 Exposition Universelle. Automata would become the main focus of the business and by 1889, when Decamps joined the business as partner, the company was employing 50 people in different workshops: mechanics, sculptors, seamstresses, artists and more. Much of the automata produced in the Marais was aimed at a mature audience, depicting well known celebrities, activities such as smoking, and with music boxes playing popular music of the time. The nature of this clockwork, however, would have appealed to those young as well as old. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | B.70:1 to 3-2011 |
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| Record created | August 16, 2011 |
| Record URL |
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