This wonderfully detailed automaton features a shoemaker at work, likely dating from the 1930s, and would have originally been used as a shop window display or trade promotion piece. Constructed with hand-carved and painted elements, fabric clothing, and mounted on a black-painted wooden plinth, the figure is mechanically animated via an electric motor concealed in the base.

The tabletop is marked “Bergeon No. 2746,” possibly indicating the reuse of a Swiss watchmaker’s bench mat, which adds to the character and provenance of the piece.

H: 61 W:63 D: 35cm