Henri Maillardet trained in Switzerland and was a partner of Jaquet-Droz and Leschot, the great Swiss automaton makers whose 3 humanoids – the ne plus ultra of 18th century automata-making - remain in Neuchatel. Maillardet’s ‘Draughtsman Writer’ writing automaton, constructed c1798, is one of a handful of eighteenth century figural automata which survive. It was exhibited by Maillardet in London until 1828 and then disappeared from sight in 1835 (by which time it had found its way to St Petersburg) before being acquired by the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, in 1928. This is a rare example of writing associated with (or made by) the automaton.

Henri Maillardet trained in Switzerland and was a partner of Jaquet-Droz and Leschot, the great Swiss automaton makers whose 3 humanoids – the ne plus ultra of 18th century automata-making - remain in Neuchatel. Maillardet’s ‘Draughtsman Writer’ writing automaton, constructed c1798, is one of a handful of eighteenth century figural automata which survive. It was exhibited by Maillardet in London until 1828 and then disappeared from sight in 1835 (by which time it had found its way to St Petersburg) before being acquired by the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, in 1928. This is a rare example of writing associated with (or made by) the automaton.