Marie Antoinette's Dulcimer Player

While I haven't yet seen the film Hugo, I loved the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.  
I've been thinking about the book again lately as we've been doing a little search for automata and happened upon this amazing one.  It was damaged in the French Revolution and later repaired by Jean-Robert Houdin: magician, clockmaker and the fellow who gave Ehrich Weiss the idea for the stage name Houdini.





Brian Selnick talks about automata here and recommends this book, Edison’s Eve: A Magical Quest for Mechanical Life by Gaby Wood.  Will be looking for that one.

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