LEHMANN, “Paddy's Dancing Pig”, 1903-35, mechanical dancing pig with partially cloth-clad rider, lacquered sheet, clockwork driven.

Length 15 cm.

BACKGROUND: Dancing pigs were a common and popular circus attraction at the turn of the century. Where Lehmann found the model for the toy, however, has proved impossible to determine. The picture on the English packaging calls the man-rider Paddy; perhaps an importer remembered the common expression “As Irish as Paddy's pig”.

The effect lies primarily in the movement hither and thither, automatically filed each time the movement flips forward and backward. The angle can simultaneously initiate new direction in the movement.

According to an old document from the Lehmann factory, over 15,000"Dancing Pigs” were produced in one year (c. 1910).