A VERY FINE, LARGE COPY. The public performances of the Automaton chessplayer created immense interest between 1771 and 1836, and became the subject of an extensive literature. "By this name is known an ingenious machine which was contructed in Vienna in 1769 by a mechanical genius named Wolfgang Kempel or von Kempelen (1734-1804). The Automaton was a life-size figure in Oriental costume, seated behind a chest about 4ft. long, 2ft. wide, and 3ft. high, on which was placed a chessboard. The figure played chess with all comers, moving the pieces with its left hand. Everything was done to convey the impression that no one was concealed within the figure, and that the figure played in some mysterious way under the influence of the exhibitor; as a matter of fact the movements of the figure were directed by a player who was concealed within the chest. The ingenuity of the invention consisted in the manner in which the player was able to conceal himself in the interior while apparently the whole was shown and in the device by which he was kept informed of the moves made upon the board, which was out of his sight." The Automaton first visited London in 1784, and in 1826 more than 20 years after its inventor's death it arrived in New York. "It ultimately found its way to the Chinese Museum in Philadelphia and was destroyed by fire in 1854" (cf. Murray pp. 876-77).