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

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

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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.

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Bowl with cover (Écuelle) and tray

Sèvres Manufactory  (French, 1740–present)

Decorator:
Pierre-Joseph Rosset (active 1753–99)
Date:
1784
Culture:
French (Sèvres)
Medium:
Soft-paste porcelain
Dimensions:
Covered bowl (.151ab): H. 3 15/16 in. (10.0 cm.) Tray (.152): L. 7 3/4 in. (19.7 cm.)
Classification:
Ceramics
Credit Line:
Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1950
Accession Number:
50.211.151 ab,152

This artwork is not on display

120016046

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