Automaton by Gustave Vichy

Automaton by GUSTAVE VICHY (Paris, 1839-1904).
"Buttons".
Head and hands in papier-mâché.
Original costumes.
Exhibits wear consistent with age and use, dirt and some damage.
Mechanical movement in the mouth, eyes, neck and right arm.
Glazed urn with five working light bulbs inside.
Measurements: 135 x 50 x 47 cm (figure); 200 x 70 x 73 cm (urn).

Automaton doll by the Frenchman Gustave Vichy representing a hotel bellboy. The smiling waiter holds in his left hand a folder in which documents can be inserted. With his left arm he pulls them out as he has a suction cup in his right hand. The neat uniform, attentive to detail (most likely made by Vichy's own wife), according to the fashion of the time, stands out: tight red shirt with a row of gold buttons and piping on the cuffs, collars and front; pants with a darts; a matching cylindrical hat and polished shoes with laces. The automaton's accomplished verism reflects the importance of this profession in the late 19th century when a bellboy reflected the standard of luxury of the hotel in which he worked.

Gustave Vichy was the son of a Parisian watchmaker who, together with his wife, founded the Vichy company in 1862 with the aim of building and selling watches, mechanical objects and toys. Four years later, at the age of 23, Gustave took over the company and devoted his time almost entirely to the development of automatons while his wife Maria Therese Burger, a seamstress by profession, dressed the figures according to the fashions of the time. The Vichy company prospered remarkably in Paris between 1860 and 1910, a period that became known as the "Golden Age of Automata". Gustave had great success producing advertising automata and one of his models won the Grand Prix at the 1900 Grand Exposition, the only award given to automata or mechanical toys. In 1904 the family sold the business to August Triboule, a former worker. Under the new owner's control, the factory soon went bankrupt.

Automaton dolls are mechanical figures that imitate the life of the time, sometimes in a parody tone. They have complex movements that allow them to do different things once they are wound up, such as dance, play musical instruments or even smoke. These were not toys intended for children, but were collector's items treasured by an adult audience. Their movement was achieved thanks to a winding mechanism that moved the heads, hands and legs hidden between the dresses, and connected to a musical device of one or several cylinders. In contrast to the sophistication of the faces and hands of the automatons (made by companies specialized in biscuit material, being Jumeau the one that made the highest quality heads, although other French and German brands, such as Simon & Halbig, also worked for the automatons' manufacturers), the bodies hidden by the dresses were crude. As a curiosity it is worth mentioning that the dresses were generally made by relatives of the owners of the companies themselves (as in the case of Marie Thérèse Burger, wife of Gustave Vichy, who in many cases was in charge of making the costumes herself).