In the 1855 Paris Exhibition Théodore’s marvels became the star attractions, including a monkey playing a violin.
In 1785 Marie Antoinette was presented with a Monkey Trio Automaton, one monkey playing on a violin, two on violencellos.Įighty years later, in 1862, Alexandre Nicholas Théroude of Paris went further designing a monkey ”nodding his head to the bow movement, moving his jaws, and drawing a bow across the violin” (French patent No. In Louis XV inventory there is a description of a clock “on a tortoiseshell base, possibly Renaissance, with an automat monkey and a 24-hour movement” (Archives nationales O1 3622, as reported by Jean-Dominique Augarde). It appears that the first Monkey automata were created during the Renaissance. King Salomon enjoyed them and, as the First Book of Kings reported (10:22), “Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.” In Western art, a monkey became a symbol of playfulness with elements of silliness as exhibited, for instance, by Jean Baptiste Chardin at the Salon du Louvre in 1740 in a form of a painting of a monkey painting a painting. Appreciation for Monkeys goes back to Biblical times where they were admired for their entertaining qualities.
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