Depicting a schoolboy with plaster-composition head, mischievous blue glass eyes, articulated tongue and blue velvet suit. The boy is perched on a two-tiered walnut sideboard set with cheese, bread and fruit, in the upper section a pair of glazed doors, in the lower a large brass going-barrel motor, nine cams and a single-air cylinder movement playing Mendelssohn's "Wedding March", ht. 32 ½ x wd. 17 in. (82 x 43 cm), stop/start needs adjustment, otherwise good working order. – In search of his grandmother's cherry jam, the boy opens a cupboard door to disclose pots of preserve, a porcelain tea service and a hovering moth that distracts him and then flits away. After surveying the contents of the shelves, he reaches up for the largest pot, which transforms into the accusing face of his grandmother. Shocked, the thief turns away, pretending to eat a piece of bread, but secretly sticks his tongue out at the old lady as the door swings shut. A white mouse darts out from behind the cheese. – Michel Bertrand's "Buffet Magique" was based on a design by Gustave Vichy (c. 1890) and produced using the original moulds and patterns. The automaton has ten separate movements and an ingenious system of pulleys, cords and return springs carefully concealed in the cupboard's interior. – The surreal story that unfolds from an everyday vignette possesses a fairy-tale quality which captures the ever-surprising nature of mechanical life. A rare and delightful contemporary automaton with Vichy lineage. – Literature: Bailly, "Automata, the Golden Age", pp. 109 and 263 for the original Vichy model.