In general, automatons are designed to arouse interest through their and then t.... automaton centuri

Automatons can be classified into two groups: those that are ancillary to a functional article and those that in themselves are fanciful objects, solely for decoration and pleasure. Throughout the ages, most automatons have been objects of fancy that are purely decorative in concept and function. Few examples of automatons made prior to the 16th century remain, but numerous documents record their one-time existence. Accounts of automatons in , during the Han dynasty, when a mechanical orchestra was made for the Emperor. By the Sui dynasty, in the 6th and 7th centuries , automatons had become widespread, and a book entitled the Shui shih t'u Ching (Book of Hydraulic Elegancies) was published. In the T'ang period, from the 7th to the 10th century , automatons continued to be popular with imperial circles. Best-documented are the water-operated automatons, many of moving peacocks, invented and made by al- Jazari, who worked in the 13th century for princes of the Urtugid dynasty! in Mesopotamia. In the early 16th century there was renewed interest in the manufacture of automatons, largely stemming from the influence of Eastern examples brought to Europe through trade with the Orient and the translation from the ancient Greek of the 1st-century- writings on mechanical objects by . It was in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that the most intricate automatons made their appearance. Among the more elaborate mechanical devices popularized in the 18th century were tableaux m niques, or mechanical pictures. 1920), the production of costly artistic automatons virtually ceased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because of the diminishing number of skilled craftsmen, as well as rich patrons to support them. This expensive hobby is still served by the dealer who locates increasingly rare examples of historic automatons and by a small corps of highly skilled craftsmen whose dearly priced services keep the objects in working order.