Our next publication in the “Exhibit in Detail” section, we will be featuring an exhibit from the “Automata” section, The “Cats’ Tea Party”, which was created in France circa 1892.

The musical automaton in the form of figures of five kittens sitting on stools at a round table is mounted on a wooden stand. The cats, covered with white fur, have movable heads, mouths, paws and tails. On the table, covered with a blue velvet tablecloth, there are teapots with blue edging and a geometric pattern in the center. The cam control gear and hand-cranked music mechanism with pined metal cylinder and steel sound comb are housed in a stand, with the drank on the front panel. 

When rotating the crank, the kitties imitate a tea party and lively conversation: their heads turn from side to side, tilt and rise, left paws gesticulate, right paws with cups or kettle – move, mouths open and close, tails move.

During the entire performance the melody of the song “Daisy Bell” (“Bicycle Built for Two”) by the British poet and composer Harry Dacre (06.09.1857-1922), written in 1892, is played.
The composition conception of the automaton, presumably, is based on the plot with the image of anthropomorphic cats “The Cats’ Tea party”, made by one of the most famous children's illustrators, artist and passionate animal lover Harrison Weir (05.05.1824-03.01.1906) in 1871.

On July 13, 1871, Harrison Ware organized in the famous Crystal Palace in London the first cat show, which was a success, all the more unexpected, given that in the Victorian era cats were not  among the British favorites, considering them exterminators of rodents, but not worthy to be, unlike dogs, pets. After the show, cats moved from the streets to aristocratic houses, received the necessary care and love, and Harrison Weir became known as the father of a special culture of love for cats that spread around the world, “The Father of the Cat Fancy”. Weir developed the concept of the cat show and its regulations, as well as defined the breed standards, introduced gradations in color and coat length. The exhibition showed 170 cats of 25 different breeds. It was at this exhibition that Europe was introduced to the mysterious Siamese cats (according to some sources, Siamese cats were brought to England in 1884). In 1889. Harrison Ware wrote a book “Cats and All About Them”.