The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Standing cup with cover (Vase couty or coupe couty)

Art Object

Program Information

David Roentgen's Automaton of Queen Marie Antoinette, The Dulcimer Player (La Joueuse de Tympanon)

Program information

Watch this surprising video of an automaton play the dulcimer.

David Roentgen (1743–1807) took his royal patron by surprise when he delivered this beautiful automaton to King Louis XVI for his queen, Marie Antoinette, in 1784. The cabinetry for this piece is very much a neoclassical masterwork, and the mechanism behind it is truly extraordinary: the figure strikes the strings in perfect rhythm with two small metal hammers held in her hands, which move with great precision.

This object, from the Musée des arts et métiers de Paris, is featured in the exhibition Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens (on view October 30, 2012–January 27, 2013).

See the full video: http://www.cerimes.fr/le-catalogue/la-joueuse-de-tympanon.html

Footage courtesy of CERIMES.

David Roentgen: Long-Case Clock

David Roentgen: Long-Case Clock
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The Roentgens' Berlin Secretary Cabinet

The Roentgens' Berlin Secretary Cabinet
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Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Demonstration

Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Demonstration
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Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Animation

Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Animation
(00:01:00) 3020 views

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Standing cup with cover (Vase couty or coupe couty)

Sèvres Manufactory (French, 1740–present)

Modeler:: Edme Couty
Decorator:: Decoration possibly by François Hallion (active 1866–96)
Date:: 1879
Culture:: French (Sèvres)
Medium:: Hard-paste porcelain
Dimensions:: H. with cover 19 3/8 in. (49.2 cm.)
Classification:: Ceramics
Credit Line:: Purchase, Friends of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Gifts, 1990
Accession Number:: 1990.238a, b

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 556

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