Chinese clockwork automaton from 1920 performs magic trick

This five-foot tall, 1920 Chinese automaton performs a lovely little clockwork magic trick: making other clockwork dolls disappear and appear. It's being sold at auction on Oct 28 at Skinner in Bolton, MA -- judging from the video, this looks like the kind of thing I'd love to bid on but could never afford. Link (Thanks, Gary!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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tfox66

It’s by Henry Phalibois who took over his father’s firm in 1893, and sold his stock to Decamps in 1925.
brotherbear

There is a Museum of sorts, in the outskirts of Detroit called “Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum” Its stocked floor to ceiling (literally) with these clockwork automation things. You get a pocket full of quarters and just roam around in amazement, There are some priceless examples there. Its a bit of a fun house too with surprises around every corner, its classic BoingBoing.
DMStone

Techno. Warning. Please.
DoorFrame

“If you can afford to live in a balloon, you can afford a clockwork magician.” – Mark Twain
Hunty

Yay! My very own Peking Homonculus!
gumbowing

Small quibble but it’s a French automaton of a Chinese magician. It is attributed to Phalibois, a 19th century Paris automaton maker.
Kevitivity

This is the kind of cool stuff I expect to see at BoingBoing, not weird anti-globalization propaganda from leftist extremists.