• LIFE

Toys Were Us: Photos of Playful (and Creepy) Vintage Automatons

2 minute read
Nineteenth-century French-made automaton smokes a cigarette.
Nineteenth-century French-made automaton smokes a cigarette.Nina Leen—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
By Ben Cosgrove

The relentless technological and digital innovation that has characterized — and in many ways defined — the past decade has a way of making not-terribly-old devices seem positively ancient. Palm Pilots, landline phones and VCRs feel like tech dinosaurs, while the hiss, crackle and pop of a dial-up Internet connection is available via Youtube for those who crave archaic soundscapes.

What, then, can we make of minuet-dancing, mandolin-playing, smoking, drinking automatons that captivated men, women and children centuries ago and endure today as collectors’ gold?

The fact that, as LIFE phrased it in a 1971 article, the 18th- and 19th-century automatons in this gallery once “had no other purpose than to amuse” both deepens their old-fashioned charm and highlights their oddity.

“Nobody knows why monkey automatons were once so popular,” LIFE noted of an elaborately clothed simian automaton that, when activated, shined shoes. The automatons LIFE showcased in that 1971 article doubled as music boxes. Aided by “a concealed maze of spring-driven pulleys and levers,” they appeared to write letters, smoke cigarettes or served tea in miniature teacups.

Today, aficionados pay stiff prices to amass and enjoy musical, miniature automata from all over the world. The wine-swigging chef in this photo gallery — yes, that’s a cat peering out from the saucepan — went for $3,750 at Rita Ford Music Boxes in New York City in the 1970s; decades later, a quick eBay search for similar toys yields prices in the thousands, as well.

Ultimately, automatons are emblems of nostalgia. But they also share a key parallel with digital toys and tools: they are devices of human manufacture that emulate and often take the place of living processes and creatures. Today, self-monitoring wristbands gauge our sleep patterns and count how many steps we take in a given day. Robotic vacuums clean our floors. Smart phones do almost everything. Like old-school automatons, today’s cutting-edge gadgets sometimes appear to pursue lives of their own — evincing a semi-independence that is both eerie and entertaining.

Here, at the end of another year of dizzying digital advances, LIFE.com celebrates some singular — and just slightly creepy — machines that were among the true tech marvels of their time.

Nineteenth-century French-made automaton smokes a cigarette.
Nineteenth-century French-made automaton smokes a cigarette. Nina Leen—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Nineteenth-century French-made mechanical doll raises its feet and lifts its cane until it is supporting itself on one hand.
Nineteenth-century French-made mechanical doll raises its feet and lifts its cane until it is supporting itself on one hand.Nina Leen—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
A 19th-century automaton chef raises a bottle of wine and drinks.
A 19th-century automaton chef raises a bottle of wine and drinks. And that cat peering from the saucepan? The story goes that the chef wanted to kiss the cook. When she resisted, the drunk thug thrust her pet into the pan, threatening to boil it alive. The cook relented, and the cat jumped out.Nina Leen—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
French-made mechanical doll, 19th century.
French-made mechanical doll, 19th century.Nina Leen—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Nineteenth-century French-made automaton magician and girl.
Nineteenth-century French-made automaton magician and girl.Nina Leen—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com