Description
These drawings were reproduced directly from high resolution scans of renderings penned by the Maillardet automaton during live performances in 2007 and 2013, when the “Juvenile Artist” was already 200 years old. Signs of age in the form of imprecise lines and other corruptions are evident, yet the fidelity of the output remains remarkably legible, especially in the light of the android’s long, adventurous life of exhibition and world travel through the high courts of Europe and 19th century America.
Since 1928 the automaton has been part of the permanent collection at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Andrew Baron, clockmaker and paper engineer, resurrected the incredibility abilities of this machine in 2007.
It is believed to possess the largest cam-based memory of its class and era, a literal hard-disc drive with a read-only memory that stores 7 extraordinary drawings on seventy two brass cams, which are traversed three at a time.
This is a set of those 7 drawings and a brief history on 8 archival cards in envelope.