At Sotheby's "Treasures" auction on London on Wednesday evening, the Siberian Mouse – a pearl, gold and enamel automaton mouse – sold for £365,000 (about €508,000). Consigned to auction by an unnamed "lady of title" and estimated at between £200,000 and £300,000, it was made in about 1805 and is attributed to Henri Maillardet, a Swiss-born, London- based craftsman renowned for his clocks, watches and small automata.
The life-size mouse has “enamelled fur set with irregularly shaped baroque pearls, chased gold ears and paws, round ruby cabochon eyes” and “when a button below the perky mesh tail is pressed the mouse skitters, twirls and pauses to sniff the air and nibble in a most realistic manner”.
Sotheby’s said the colouring indicated this was a “Siberian mouse, whose grey fur was believed to turn white in winter to make it invisible in the snow”. Publicity material from an exhibition of automata in London in the early 19th century claimed the mouse would “surprise the visitor by its natural cleverness and its ability to run and turn in all directions like a live animal”.
