Animatronic bed of 1883 features winking bronze statues of women

201006110934

Thom Buchanan of The Pictorial Arts posted this photo of a bed with four life-size bronze figures, made for Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan Abbasi V of Bahawalpur in 1883.

The four figures at the corners represent women of France, Spain, Italy and Greece. With clever mechanisms, the statues were able to wink and wave fans and fly whisks... [T]he bed was fitted with a music box that played a thirty minute interlude from Gounod's Faust, activated by a button.
Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan Abbasi V's bed

Read more 

Mark Frauenfelder

My latest book, Made by Hand, now in paperback. Follow me on Twitter.

Where not otherwise specified, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States and other countries.