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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)

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.

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After a design by Cornelis Pronk  (Dutch, Amsterdam 1691–1759 Amsterdam)

Date:
ca. 1735
Culture:
Chinese
Medium:
Hard-paste porcelain
Dimensions:
H. 1 in. (2.5 cm.); Diam. 6 11/16 in. (17.0 cm.)
Classification:
Ceramics
Credit Line:
Helena Woolworth McCann Collection, Purchase, Winfield Foundation Gift, 1960
Accession Number:
60.150.1

This artwork is not on display

120017889

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