Very Rare English Antique Sterling Silver Monkey Pepper Pot - London 1881

Hallmarked in London in 1882 by Thomas Johnson II, this very rare set of 6 Victorian, Antique Sterling Silver Pepper Pots, are modelled to ...

Hallmarked in London in 1904 by William Hornby, this wonderful and very rare, antique sterling silver bell, is modelled as a quite charmi...

A magnificent and rare figural sterling silver cigar cutter; the terminal beautifully cast as a Boar's head retaining two original red stone / glas...

Extremely rare, circus related antique automaton from a Swiss collection. Via a Swiss trade contact we were given the opportunity to purchase this extremely rare and all handcrafted automaton. Unfortunately the lady who had owned it for the last 40 years had passed away and had never mentioned where she purchased this unique collectible. Since she owned many rare antiques, it was known that she had also made purchases at renowned auction houses. Because of the absolute rarity of this circus automaton we would not be surprised if that is where she purchased it. Every collector is different and to this lady it apparently was important to keep a piece like this, exactly as she found it (truly original). As you can tell, from the clown's clothing particularly, this rare automaton has never been restored. It is for that reason that the clown's silk clothes are almost completely warn and lost all their color. You can even see 'the base' of this clown's colar. We are not sure if the hand-painted heads, hands and feet are ceramic or if they are paper mache, but they all are in excellent condition. With the circus clown sitting on a table-like stool and the monkey on a high pedestal to get them 'level-eyed', it is also possible that the monkey is supposed to portray a ventriloquist dummy. The wind-up mechanism (located inside the body of the clown) could only run very shortly and that is why we had it cleaned. It can now again run its full length of appr. one hour and five minutes. Underneath the clown's warn silk clothing one can see how the clown's torso is covered / made up of small newspaper parts and since they are in German, this leads us to believe that this automaton was either Swiss or German made. To find an antique automaton with more than one moving character is rare. To find one with a circus clown and circus monkey...