Only six of these mechanical caterpillars are known: 1. With pearls and turquoises, Sandoz Collection. 2. With pearls in two rows, formerly in the Iklé Collection (Saint-Gall). 3. Sandoz Collection, similar to this one, formerly in the Franck Collection (Paris). 4. With turquoises, now in the Patek Philippe Museum, sold by Antiquorum on Oct 19, 1997, lot 654. 5. With pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and turquoises, now in Patek Philippe Museum in a case called the ?Patek Philippe Zoo? (see Antiquorum October 11, 2003, lot 97). 6. The present one. The crawling motion of the caterpillar is ingeniously produced by a series of articulated and jointed rings; the front end raises itself slowly, and then the rest of the body follows. The very natural movement is set off by a little catch, hardly visible, in the middle of the body. Henri Maillardet, who exhibited a caterpillar in the early 19th century, called it the "Ethiopian caterpillar". The Sandoz caterpillar, probably the most famous one, was in the Franck Collection in the 1920s and was illustrated and described in 1928 in "Le Monde des Automates" by Alfred Chapuis and Edouard Gélis (p. 154). The authors called it a "remarkable piece of jewelry of magnificent colors and perfect movement". The present piece is strikingly similar to the one in the ?Patek Philippe Zoo?. The design is the same; the only difference is the order of the precious stones and their settings. Here, the stones are predominately diamonds, set in pairs, in the ?Patek Philippe Zoo?, the stones are set in a single row. Mechanical Animals Late 18th and early 19th century audiences loved automata and many legendary ones were created during that time. Among the best known mechanical ?critters? were the duck constructed in 1738 by Jacques de Vaucanson, which appeared to flap its wings, eat, splash happily in an artificial pond, and ?digest?, as its inventor delicately put it. The result of the duck?s digestive process was then passed around on a silver platter for delighted audiences to admire. Precious mechanical beasts such as the exceptional pieces which will be presented by Antiquorum in October 2003 are in a sense the ?descendants? of the celebrated animal automata of the Age of Enlightenment. They appeal to ?scientific? curiosity while at the same time affording popular entertainment. One of the most popular exhibitions of animated pieces was given by Henri Maillardet, the director of the London branch of the Jaquet-Droz firm. After that association ended, Maillardet became a showman, going on tour with various types of automata. In November 1798, Jean-Frédéric Leschot wrote to him, congratulating him on his success: ?It was with great pleasure that I learned ... of the agreeable success of your exhibitions of mechanical pieces, etc., arousing the admiration of the court and of other enthusiasts.? Two years later, Maillardet ordered a singing bird box from Leschot, which he intended to include in his traveling exhibition. But Henry Maillardet achieved even greater fame with his London exhibitions. In the Great Room, Spring Gardens, from 1798 to 1817, he exhibited a ?Musical Lady? (probably a replica of the original Jaquet-Droz Lady harpsichord player), a writer, a draughtsman, a magician, a rope dancer, and smaller animals which he called the ?Ethiopian caterpillar?, the ?Egyptian lizard?, and the ?Siberian mouse?. These pieces were occasionally also shown elsewhere, as, for example, in an 1812 exhibition organized along with the Frenchman Paul de Philipstal, called ?Maillardet?s Automaton Theatre? held in Catherine Street. It is reported that he also showed a crawling spider and singing bird boxes. In the early years of the 19th century, Maillardet toured Ireland with his mechanical pieces. They next turned up in London in the 1820s, at which time the collection was owned by a Mr. Schmidt or Smith and was shown at the Gothic Hall in the Haymarket. By 1828 the collection was for sale again. A mechanical mouse and caterpillar were among the most admired exhibits in the ?Mechanical Museum? which Thomas Weeks opened around 1803 in Tichborne Street near the Haymarket. Weeks exhibited other mechanical animals as well, including a ?tarantula spider made of steel, that comes independently out of a box, and runs backwards and forwards on the table, stretches out and draws in its paws, as if at will?, and singing birds in ornate cages. Many of Weeks? items had come from the museum of John Joseph Merlin, a Belgian inventor who had been James Cox?s principal ?mechanic? in the 1760s and whose stock had been sold after Merlin?s death in 1803. It is not known, however, whether small animals such as the mouse, caterpillar and lizard were among those pieces. Weeks described his mouse and caterpillar as follows: ?an animated mouse, formed of gold and Oriental pearls, which runs about the table and feeds? and two caterpillars, ?the colors of which are beautifully represented in enameled go d and brilliants; an extraordinary copy of animated nature?.