Enchanting Mechanical Pictures
Santa Claus Surprise mechanical picture, Santa surprises sleeping girl by popping out of the fireplace, lithographed paper figures, clockwork mechanism on back, Schoenhut, 14 in. w., $2,700.
Mechanical toys from the late 19th and early 20th centuries were often made of lithographed tin and “powered” by wind-up clockwork mechanisms. A recent sale at Bertoia Auctions of Vineland, New Jersey, had eight mechanical pictures, also called automatons. Most were made by German toymaker Albert Schoenhut. The pictures have three-dimensional figures animated by a […]