Antiques Roadshow: Snake charmer automaton wows the crowd
An Antiques Roadshow guest was completely stunned when his father’s remarkable piece of history was estimated to be worth 10s of thousands of pounds.
In this week’s repeated episode, the BBC show visited Lytham Hall in Lancashire to scope out some family heirlooms and historical artefacts.
Expert Jon Baddeley was completely enamoured by a 130-year-old automaton of a female snake charmer that danced and played music to entertain dinner guests.
“It was made in Paris at the end of the 19th Century by a company named Roullet-Decamps,” he explained.
“She was obviously called the Snake Charmer. How has it come into your possession?”
The guest explained that the clockwork dancer was part of his father’s collection of antiques, a hobby he got into after he retired.
“He’s sadly passed away,” the guest said. “When he retired he decided to collect things like this.
“It’s one of his prized possessions, yeah,” he confirmed when Jon asked further. “He had two, this one and the Cambodian Dancer.”
Jon went on to explain that automatons like this weren’t made as children’s toys.
“They were made to entertain adults,” he said. “You can imagine yourself at a dinner party in Paris in the 1890s. You would have had your dinner and then you might have retreated to smoke your cigars and have your brandies.
“And there would be something like this. And it would mean they’re simulating reality.”
Jon added that this particular automaton could have been modelled after a real woman who performed snake charming. He revealed they’re “very rare” and there are probably just 15 left in the world.
It’s also unique amongst automatons as it’s a fully-formed figure and the expert suggested the mechanical sculpture may have originally performed nude.
The guest confirmed it was still in working condition and the crowd watched in awe as Jon cranked the handle to make the sculpture play a tinkly tune and dance with her trumpet and snake.
Jon was particularly impressed as the automaton was so detailed it even moved her chest up and down to simulate breathing as well as fluttering her eyelashes.
“It ticks a lot of boxes,” the expert gushed. “It’s probably one of the rarest automatons ever known. It’s all original, it’s in fantastic condition.”
When it came down to pricing such a rare find, Jon had to warn his guest, “Prices at the moment are not as high as they have been in the past.
“But if you decided to sell it today, I think at auction you’d be looking at a figure between… well, £60-80,000.”
The crowd gasped as the guest was left absolutely stunned. His eyes went wide and his jaw dropped as he simply uttered, “Really?”
He bowed his head and laughed in joy when Jon reaffirmed the staggering price tag before responding, “Fabulous. Thank you very much.”
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
