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

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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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Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Animation

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Set of three knives

François Charles Gavet  (French, appointed as cutler to the king 1782, died 1840)

Date:
1789–90
Culture:
French (Paris)
Medium:
Silver gilt
Dimensions:
L. 8 in. (20.3 cm.)
Classification:
Metalwork
Credit Line:
Bequest of Catherine D. Wentworth, 1948
Accession Number:
48.187.352–.354

This artwork is not on display

120059776

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