This is a very rare and delightful monkey cyclist musical automaton made by Symphonion in Leipzig, Germany in c. 1895.

When the music is playing a monkey on   a penny farthing bicycle rides round and round the stage, while above a band of dogs play their instruments: the central dog plays the cymbals, the dog on the right plays the drum, while the dog on the left looks on.

This automaton is a very rare find and has some imperfections, notably that the comb is missing two teeth although this does not noticeably affect the sound. There has also been some repairs to the monkey and the dogs, but they have been very sympathetically done.

The movement was serviced at the same time so that it plays well, although as with all of these automata, it is rather temperamental.

The automaton comes with a selection of 5 5 ¾” / 14 ½cm) discs.