Henri Maillardet Exhibits Automata at Gothic Hall, Haymarket

In October 2021 I was fortunate to acquire a small aquatint depicting an exhibition of Henri Maillardet's automata at Gothic Hall, Haymarket, London. The print, which I had never previously seen on the market, was drawn and etched by Theodore Lane (1800-1828) and published by Charles Smith (1800-1852) on March 7, 1826. Captioned The Automata Exhibition, Gothic Hall, Haymarket, it depicts an exhibition of Maillardet's automata in London that year.

In the center of the print is Maillardet's the 'Musical Lady', whose fingers actually play a keyboard. This automaton is preserved in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Neuchatel, Switzerland. To the right is "The Draughtsman-Writer or "Maelzel's Juvenile Artist", preserved in the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. When this automaton arrived at the Franklin Institute in 1928, it was unattributed and out-of-order; when it was repaired it first penned (in French) "written by the automaton of Maillardet."

This rare print is undoubtedly one of the only images showing an actual exhibition of Maillardet's automata published during the period in which the automata were originally exhibited.

During the early nineteenth century, Maillardet exhibited automata that he created throughout England, and other countries in Europe as far as Saint Petersburg, Russia. The following is a partial list of known exhibitions of the Maillardet's automaton. The automaton was mostly known as the Juvenile Artist in those exhibitions

• 1807: The exhibition at Mr. Wigley's Great Rooms in Spring Gardens, London included the Juvenile Artist.^[5]
• 1821 – 1833: The automata of Maillardet were in the possession of a gentlemen named Mr Schmidt. He held an exhibition in London. The last public display in London was held in 1833 at New Gothic Hall, 7 Haymarket Street before the exhibition was on tour to St. Petersburg^[6] where it disappeared along with other automata in the collection.^[7]
• 1835: An exhibition in Boston under the showman Johann Nepomuk Maelzel included the Juvenile Artist automaton^[8]
• 1835: The Juvenile Artist automaton was also traveled to Philadelphia in an exhibition at American Museum located then at the corner of Fifth and Chesnut Streets. The announcement for the event mentioned the success of Maelzel's exhibition in Boston. It also attributed the automata including the Juvenile Artist in the exhibition as "Maillardet's unrivalled mechanical and musical automata". The announcement was recorded as having Henri Maillardet, Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, and American Museum (Philadelphia, Pa.) as authors.^[9]
• November 27, 1835 – January 16, 1836: Maelzel took Maillardet automata including the Juvenile Artist along with his Chess Player on a tour in Washington, D.C.^[10]
• Late 1836 – early 1837: The Juvenile Artist was among other automata presented at American Museum in New York during the Christmas and New Year exhibition.^[11]