Automata

 

 

An Automaton is a machine that works on its own.
Usually this is taken to mean any machine from a cuckoo clock to a toy pedlar that performs amusing actions for the entertainment of guests
Automata (plural) were known in Ancient Rome and Greece and were then mainly powered by water or wind.;

Other automata were around in pre Christian times too.
More recent Automata were used to impress guests ( a notable one being a lady who would wash your hands for you from a bowl of water.)

Automata were in more recent times made by Goldsmiths and Clockmakers and these included machines that would talk to you or play chess with you.

There is an amazing Silver Swan at the Bowes Museum in England and that one swims across a glss river and moves its wings and head.

Magicians and entertainers made automata part of their acts but the French really brought the art of making Automata between 1860 and 1910 to its highest level.

when they made thousands of clockwork automata and mechanical birds that would sing inside their gilded cages.

Bisque heads were added to an early form of clockwork entertainment of animals,people and scenes which actually moved.

(This was well before tv of course !)

 

Automata actually went back hundreds if not thousands of years for the entertainment of Royalty and the Rich.

 

These were always expensive adult toys and were made in many forms :

Musical Automata,dolls that could speak (phonographe automata)

Whistling birds in gilded cages,

 

Magicians and other entertainers,

 

Acrobats,, playing children and many,many more

Some ancient models were even water powered.

 

Often made by clockmakers many of these have survived to give pleasure today.

Here are my personal favourites :

 

Rabbit in a Flower Automaton

A 19th Century French Automaton
From 69mechanik and Youtube.com

 

 

Steiner Automaton Doll

This must have Caused a stir in Victorian times -

 

Video from Bellsonherfingers and Youtube

 

 

 

A really Cute Cat Automaton

From 69 Mechanik and Youtube

Automata made by Roullet and Decamps of Paris

 

 

Little Magician Automaton

 

From 69 Mechanik and Youtube.

Automata by Renou of Paris 1870