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Demonstration of David Roentgen's Automaton of Queen Marie Antoinette, The Dulcimer Player

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Art Object
Program Information

Demonstration of David Roentgen's Automaton of Queen Marie Antoinette, The Dulcimer Player

Program information

Watch a demonstration of Queen Marie Antoinette's Automaton playing one of eight melodies it can perform.

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).

View a full documentary featuring this object: http://www.cerimes.fr/le-catalogue/la-joueuse-de-tympanon.html

Footage courtesy of CERIMES.

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Sèvres Manufactory  (French, 1740–present)

Decorator:
Floral decoration probably by Jean-Baptiste Noualhier (French, active 1753–55, 1757–66)
Date:
1763
Culture:
French, Sèvres
Medium:
Soft-paste porcelain
Dimensions:
H. 11 1/2 in. (29.2 cm.); W. 9 in. (22.9 cm.)
Classification:
Ceramics
Credit Line:
Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1950
Accession Number:
50.211.157a, b

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 529

120016051

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