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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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Pair of vases

Sèvres Manufactory  (French, 1740–present)

Date:
1789
Culture:
French (Sèvres)
Medium:
Hard-paste porcelain; gilt bronze, marblel
Dimensions:
Heights: 9 1/16 in. (23 cm)
Classification:
Ceramics
Credit Line:
Wrightsman Fund, in honor of Edith de Montebello, 2008
Accession Number:
2008.529, .530

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 545

120056359

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