Leopold Lambert
Leopold Lambert was born on October 8, 1854, in Jouques, a small village near Aix-en-Provence in France. He relocated to Paris in 1873, and started work as a clockmaker/jeweller. While working in Vichy’s shop, he began to be interested in automata, and by 1886, he had his own shop. Lambert had married Eugenie Maria Bourgeois, who was a seamstress, in 1876. It was she who made many of the costumes for the automata. Lambert made two types of automata: a limited number and a series. The rarer automata are generally more complex in their movements and very life-like. The firm continued into the twentieth century, but began to slowly decline after the first decade of the century. With decreasing sales and the advent of World War I, Lambert ceased production. He died on March 4, 1935.
Information courtesy of James D. Julia Auctions