by Christian Greinacher (031125 MMDigest)
Hello all, I would ask you to help me in finding out who was the maker of a fine musical automaton which I can describe as follows:
It is a "Flower Girl" framed like a picture, the frame is about 70 by 45 cm [27.5 x 18 inches]. On the front glass are printed golden letters (not very easy to read) that show:
TIFFANY
THE FLOWER GIRL
1875
On the backside of the automaton the original label says:
Made exclusively for Tiffany Studios
London - Paris - New York
The Great Parisian Exhibition 1875
Exposition d'Art
No. 5 (this is handwritten)
Gold Medal of Merit
Loci(?) Universal Exhibition
Music Automata
<picture of a factory>
Everything is in original condition, but in this very moment the movement does not work. Before I open the frame to inspect and to repair the movement, I would like to get as much information as possible about this automaton. Most important is: Who made this automaton? How many of it were made, how many do still exist?
Greetings from Germany
Christian Greinacher
24 Nov 2003 11:56:03 +0100
High-resolution images:
flower_front1.jpg (81 kb)
flower_front2.jpg (179 kb)
flower_back.jpg (118 kb)
flower_label.jpg (163 kb)
25 November 2003