This 200 year old mechanical caterpillar sold for $415,000

The Ethiopian Caterpillar from HODINKEE on Vimeo.


The Ethiopian Caterpillar is a bejeweled automaton from the year 1820. Attributed to Henri Maillardet, only six automaton caterpillars are known to exist and the other five are in prestigious collections in Europe, include one in the Patek Philippe museum and another two in the Sandoz collection (see Parmigiani for more on them).
The pre-sale estimate for this piece is $350,000-$450,000.

it ended up selling for $415,000 not bad for a 200 year old wind up toy