This is a TERRIFYING 19th century automaton of a monkey pastry-chef, who serves the severed head of an equally creepy cat in a pastry pie.

All automata are pretty weird, but this monkey one particularly gives me the creeps. Something about that monkey snarl is so unsettling!

It was made by the renowned French toy-makers Roullet & Decamps, around 1880. The automaton works by winding up a mechanism on the back, so that the monkey blinks his eyes, moves his head and lifts the pastry crust to reveal his macabre dish.

Scroll down for video of the automaton in action, if you dare!

Ernest Decamps kept this creepy monkey automaton in his personal collection his whole life — I’m assuming in order to torture his ungrateful children. The family finally sold it at auction in 2014 through Douglas Fisher Antiques for over USD $36,000, plus the cost of extensive therapy for recurring nightmares.

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