Automata Mechanical Dolls 1850+

Jules N. Steiner 15" waltzing lady face

ca. 1855 Jules N. Steiner 15" Waltzing Lady doll

Antique Mechanical dolls are referenced as early as the mid 17th century, with the golden years being roughly 1850 to the early 1900s.

Antique Automata dolls or Mechanical dolls are dolls that moved, usually through a clock work like mechanism, the dolls were made by Americans, French and Germans.

Some types of mechanical dolls are: Automatrons; dolls that played a musical instrument, Animated dolls, Autoperipatetikos dolls, Cymbaler dolls, Gigoteur dolls that cry, kick, walk or talk.

Musical Marottes a doll head on a stick atop a music box, Ondine swimming dolls. Dolls with Pull Toys, Phonograph dolls, Creeping, Walking, Talking, Kiss throwing dolls and Waltzing dolls, are some of the early movable, magical and innovative dolls that have amused adults and children.

Jules N. Steiner 15" waltzing lady body

Jules N. Steiner 15" Waltzing Lady doll body

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1862 The patent Autoperipatetikos

or Walking doll by Enoch Rice Morrison,
9 1/2-10" tall.

She has a cloth, papier mâché, China or untinted bisque head with painted facial features, Walks by a key wound clock work mechanism. Doll marked on base
Patented July 15th, 1862: also in England or
Patented July 15th, 1862: also in Europe, 20 Dec. 1862.
Distributed by
Daniel S. Cohen
Joseph Lyon & Co
of New York City

Martin & Runyon
of London, plus others.

1772 Android - Automata doll;
La Joueuse de Tympanon -
The Dulcimer Player

Created in 1772 by Pierre Kintzing a watch maker and David Roentgen a cabinet maker.

Purchased by Queen Marie Antoinette of France in 1785, restored in 1864 by Jean Eugene Roubert-Houdin and now resides in the Musée des Arts et Métiers.

video courtesy of You Tube

Additional Doll Makers of Antique to Vintage Mechanical Dolls not shown

Automata Mechanical Dolls; Pierre Jaquet-Droz, Fleischmann & Bloedel (or Blödel), Dehais, Arthur Heinze, I M Helvetic Corp. also called H & M Corp., Ives, Blakeslee & Co, Leopold Lambert, Henri Maillardet, Ferdinand Martin, Henri Phalibois, Louis-Marie Renou, Charles Rossignol, Roullet et Decamps, Jean Rousselot, SFBJ, Schoenau & Hoffmeister, Alfred Schroeder, Max Schudze, Alexandre Nicholas Théroude, Gustave Vichy, Ungarische, VanHollbeke, plus others. Doll heads are marked by the maker they were obtained from, other marks maybe on the keys or on the mechanical device.

Animated dolls; Adolf Zinner, Gottlieb Zinner Cymbalier dolls made by Simpson-Crawford Co.

Musical dolls; Heinrich Schellhorn dolls sound like a xylophone, William A. Webber; The Webber Doll, Zeuch & Lausmann.

Phonograph Dolls; Max Oscar Arnold, Madame Hendren Dolly Record, Emile Berliner gramophone talking dolls, Thomas A. Edison phonograph doll, Giebeler-Falk Doll Corp Primadonna a phonograph doll, Jenny Lind Doll Co phonograph doll, Bébé Phonographe Jumeau, Metal Devices Corp phonograph doll, J.L. Schilling talking doll; patent by Jesse J. Warner & Son wind-up talking phonograph doll

Clauderies (swayng doll), Creeping, Crawling, Walking, Talking, Dancing, Singing Dolls;

American Toy Co, Babs Manufacturing or Harry S. Coleman, Robert Clay or George Clark, L. Cohen & Son, William Farr Goodwin, Ferdinand Imhof, Irwin & Company, Japan, Ernst Paul Lehmann, Limoges, FR, Johannes Maelzel,

Armand Marseille, Louis Marx, Francis Pelobet walking dolls, Rabery & Delphieu, Sayco, Schoenhut, Johann Siedar, Simon & Halbig, Steevan's, Transogram, UNIS, Wood Toy, Bernard Zehner, plus others.

Bébé Gigoteur dolls made by Jules Nicholas Steiner Swimming dolls; also known by the term Ondine dolls

Makers of Mechanical music boxes used in dolls; Thorens 1883+ Switzerland