Panel 1: The automaton became so successful that von Kempelen had to move to larger exhibition space in London (actually, that’s where Thicknesse saw it perform; I fudged history a bit here). There were several other stops on the tour between London and Leipzig as well, including Carlsruhe, Frankfurt and Gotha.
Panel 2:The Leipzig Trade Fair, or Leipziger Messe, still takes place today, as it has for nearly a thousand years. There are some really gorgeous old images of the city in Wikimedia Commons, including this one, which I wanted to use, but couldn’t find a way to get both von Kempelen and Anthon into view and still show all that detail. I also think it’s highly unlikely that they’d be exhibiting the automaton outdoors.
The device displayed by von Kempelen is his speaking machine, which he usually exhibited side-by-side with the automaton (Johann Jacob Ebert called them “the two most remarkable curiosities of the last Michaelmas Fair.”) You can get a better look at it in last week’s page, sitting next to him on the desk as he reads Thicknesse’s pamphlet.
Panel 3: Anthon knows too well that the glamorous roadtrip is almost over, and that when he gets back to Pressburg, the most exciting thing he has to look forward to is lining up the silverware at dinnertime.
Panel 4: This is the last time we’ll see the automaton outside of its packing crates until the next chapter. Shame that it goes to its temporary rest with its costume all shabby and worn out.