Perhaps Henri Maillardet, the builder of the Franklin Institute Automaton, was an apprentice of Pierre Jaquet-Droz. We do know that his machines began to appear later than those of Jaquet-Droz. The two men for a time were partners in the building of automata in London.

It is virtually certain that The Franklin Institute's "Green Lady", so called because of her original costume, was the work of Henri Maillardet. Two writing automata were produced that are attributed to him and one of them, from a description written in 1812, is certainly our automaton. Our best guess is that she came into being sometime between 1800 and 1810.

The other of Henri Maillardet's writing dolls is older than The Franklin Institute's automaton. He was programmed to write in Chinese and was given by King George III of England to the Emperor of China during a period in which the English were attempting to establish between trade relations with that nation. We know that the doll reached Peking and is alive and well and living in a museum there.