During his later years Henri-Louis Jacquet-Droz was induced to take the
automata to Spain. His tour was under the direction of an English
manager, who, possibly for the purpose of securing greater
advertisement, announced the figures as possessed of supernatural power.
This brought them under the ban of the Inquisition, and Jacquet-Droz was
thrown into prison. Eventually he managed to secure his freedom, and,
breathing free air once more, like the proverbial Arab, he silently
folded his tent and stole away, leaving the automata to their fate.
Henri-Louis Jacquet-Droz died in Naples, Italy, in 1791, a year after
his father's death.
[Illustration: A de Philipsthal programme of 1803 before the writing and
drawing figure came under his control. From the Harry Houdini
Collection.]
[Illustration: Poster used, March 22nd, 1811, by de Philipsthal and
Maillardet during their partnership, on which the writing and drawing
figure is featured. From the Harry Houdini Collection.]
The English manager, however, tarried in Spain. The figures were "tried"
and as they proved motionless the case was dropped. The Englishman then
claimed the automata as his property and sold them to a French nobleman.
Their owner did not know how to operate them, so their great value
was never realized by his family. After his death, during a voyage to
America, they lay neglected in the castle of Mattignon, near Bayonne.
After changing hands many times, about 1803 they passed into the hands
of an inventor named Martin, and were controlled by his descendants for
nearly a hundred years. One of his family, Henri Martin, of Dresden,
Germany, exhibited them in many large cities, and advertised them for
sale at 15,000 marks in the _Muenchener_ Blaetter of May 13th, 1883.
After Martin's death, his widow succeeded in disposing of them to Herr
Marfels, of Berlin, who had them repaired with such good results that in
the fall of 1906 he sold them for 75,000 francs, or about $15,000, to
the Historical Society of Neuchâtel. In April, 1907, the writing figure,
the drawing figure, and the spinet player were on exhibition in Le
Locle, Chaux-de-Fonds, and Neuchâtel.
So far we have traced only the original writing and drawing figure. This
has been done purely to show that even if Robert-Houdin had been capable
of building such an automaton, he would not have been its real inventor,
but would merely have copied the marvellous work of the Jacquet-Drozes.
Now to trace the figure which in 1844 he claimed as his invention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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