This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/17/2024
[MASKELYNE]. Handbill for Maskelyne’s Automaton, Zoë. [London, 1877]. Pictorial letterpress advertisement on yellow stock bears an image of the sketching automaton, Zoe, constructed in the form of a small girl seated on a pedestal with a drawing surface before her. On command, the figure sketched portraits of famous persons or other well-known subjects. 7 ¼ x 5”. One corner repaired with archival tape, else very good. Uncommon.
Zoë was one of a trio of apparently “thinking” machines presented at the Egyptian Hall in the Victorian era. Psycho the whist player was the most famous of the trio, and Labial, a horn-player, was the third member of Maskelyne’s mechanical family. All of the automatons were, however, “false” in the sense that they required offstage control from a human operator to activate and direct their movements.