Adorable and Therapeutic Musical Clown Automaton Figure Toy

A fine quality therapeutic musical automaton clown toy in wonderful vintage working condition. Features porcelain head, hands and feet. Made in France circa...

Vintage Toy Robot: A Nostalgic Delight Bring a touch of retro charm to your home with this delightful vintage toy robot. This charming mechanical companion, named Emiglio, is in wor...

A fine quality and delightfully heavy sculpted iron motoring trophy car. Automobile depicted is circa 1920s. Collectible and Commemorative of the ‘Rally U.C.O.L. Challenge - Driver...

Great collectible. Meccano, this great system of construction, born at the beginning of the 20th century. Toy store display, circa 1927. This is a very cool...

One of the most amazing timepieces we have ever acquired that offers far more than meets the eye, this incredible work of art blends the beauty of a painting with the mechanical complexities of both a cylinder music box and an automaton. While it is clear to see the integrated clock residing within the arched giltwood and gesso frame, when activated, this painting quite literally comes alive. As the cylinder mechanism within plays its lovely tune, every character in the farrier's shop becomes animated – from the group of farrier's toiling away at the forge and anvil forming the horseshoes, to the wagging of the charming terrier's tale. This musical automaton picture clock is attributed to Xavier Tharin of Paris who was the preeminent creator of this fantastical "moving pictures", especially this particular farrier scene. His process mixed oil painting and hand-colored lithograph images that were layered starting from the back, middle and foreground to craft the complex series of movements throughout the painting. A look inside this particular work reveals the complex mechanism (with the three gongs, pendulum and cylinder components immediately visible) which must run the timepiece, the cylinder musical component plus the multitude of moving elements in the painting...a truly incredible feat considering the technical prowess to create just one of these devices. Musical picture clocks...

This fine, antique mantel clock is constructed in ebonised wood by the renowned Parisian maker of automata, Xavier Tharin (French, active mid 19th Century). The clock face is set onto a curled, stylized pediment atop the clock case. The face is of white enamel, featuring black Roman numerals and signed 'Tharin a Paris', and is bordered in beaded ormolu. The pediment in which the face is set is decorated with ormolu mounts of stylized acanthus leaf form. The pediment is set onto a rectangular frame of ebonised wood, inside which is set a musical automaton...

Beautiful 1930s Austrian horse toy. Wonderful patina.

Late 19th century automaton of a monkey in 18th century style dress. Likely to be French, this piece shows all the hallmarks of J. Phalibois, one of the foremost makers of clockwork toys...