Chinese clockwork automaton from 1920 performs magic trick

This five-foot tall, 1920 Chinese automaton performs a lovely little clockwork magic trick: making other clockwork dolls disappear and appear. It's being sold at auction on Oct 28 at Skinner in Bolton, MA -- judging from the video, this looks like the kind of thing I'd love to bid on but could never afford. Link (Thanks, Gary!)

[#1 posted by brotherbear , October 4, 2007 9:56 AM]

There is a Museum of sorts, in the outskirts of Detroit called "Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum" Its stocked floor to ceiling (literally) with these clockwork automation things. You get a pocket full of quarters and just roam around in amazement, There are some priceless examples there. Its a bit of a fun house too with surprises around every corner, its classic BoingBoing.

[#2 posted by DMStone , October 4, 2007 10:09 AM]

Techno. Warning. Please.

[#3 posted by DoorFrame , October 4, 2007 10:21 AM]

"If you can afford to live in a balloon, you can afford a clockwork magician." - Mark Twain

[#4 posted by gumbowing , October 4, 2007 11:25 AM]

Small quibble but it's a French automaton of a Chinese magician. It is attributed to Phalibois, a 19th century Paris automaton maker.

[#5 posted by Kevitivity , October 4, 2007 11:35 AM]

This is the kind of cool stuff I expect to see at BoingBoing, not weird anti-globalization propaganda from leftist extremists.

[#6 posted by Hunty , October 5, 2007 7:45 AM]

Yay! My very own Peking Homonculus!

[#7 posted by tfox66 , October 21, 2007 6:35 AM]

It's by Henry Phalibois who took over his father's firm in 1893, and sold his stock to Decamps in 1925.