France 

Wood, cloth, metal, bisque
1880s
Height: 14 in; Width: 12 in; Depth: 10 in
Musical Toys – 1850s-1890s

A French 1880s Manivelle Automaton featuring two girl musicians with bisque heads and hands. One is  playing a French horn and the other playing a bass drum with a mallet, and cymbals.  They are in original costumes with the drummer moving both arms and the horn player turning from side to side.  The two musicians move when the crank is turned and it still plays music.

The idea of automata – human-like machines designed to imitate human skills – existed thousands of years ago.  The word Automaton comes from the Greek word ‘αὐτόματος,’ which means self-acting, self-willed, self-moving.  An automaton (plural: automata) is an abstract self-propelled computing device which follows a predetermined sequence of operations automatically.

Today, the Automata are considered to be among the remote ancestors of modern computers.

Resource:  https://www.fi.edu/en/history-resources/automaton
Resource:  https://science.howstuffworks.com/maillardets-automaton.htm