Extraordinary exhibitions : the wonderful remains of an enormous head, the whimsiphusicon, & death to the savage Unitarians
New York: Quantuck Lane Press, 2005. 1st edition. Hardcover. Black illustrated DJ, Black covers. 172 pp : color illustrations, portraits. New in shrink wrap. Item #179721
ISBN: 1593720122
"An informal history of sensational, scientific, silly, satisfying, and startling attractions based on seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth-century broadsides from Ricky Jay's extraordinary collection. It includes observations on the convention of promoting such appearances, digressions on the manner and method of printing advertisements to do so, and insights into the psychology employed to that end. All are compiled in a monograph that is itself a shameless attempt to entertain and elucidate. It is the contention of the author that neither the tongue of the most florid orator, nor pen of the most ingenious writer, can sufficiently describe the elegance, symmetry, and prodigious accomplishments of those who pass in review within these pages Included are broadsides advertising: an armless dulcimer player, a ghost showman, a singing mouse, a chess-playing automaton, a cannon ball juggler, an African hermaphrodite, a chicken incubator, a rabbi with prodigious memory, a ventriloquist, a spirit medium, a glass blower, a woman magician, a speaking machine, a mermaid, a bullet catcher, a flea circus, and an equestrian bee keeper."--Amazon.com. Content as follows: The learned horse (c. 1618) -- Pietro Stadelmann, armless dulcimer player (c. 1618) -- Jacob Hall, rope dancer (c. 1670) -- Mathew Buchinger, "The greatest German living" (1726) -- Isaac Fawkes, "dexterity of hand" (c. 1729) -- Mills' sinister deceptions (c. 1740) -- The famous African hermaphrodite (c. 1750) -- Mr. Williams, conjurer from Barbados (c. 1750) -- Duncan MacDonald, "the Scottish equilibrist" (1753) -- Automaton flautists (c. 1760) -- Highman Palatine's "hundred surprising things" (c. 1763) -- Price's feats of horsemanship (c. 1767) -- Daniel Wildman, equestrian apiarist (c. 1770) -- Charles Hughes, Astley's rival (1772) -- Mr. Lane, fairground showman (c. 1786) -- The Monstrous craws (1787) -- The stone eater (1788) -- The mermaid, "wonder of wonders" (1789) -- Wm. Powers, "feats of activity" (1789) -- The first elephant in America (1797) -- Haddock's androides (c. 1798) -- Astley's Ampitheatre (1799) -- Rannie's ventriloquism (1804) -- Moritz's troupe (c. 1809) -- The celebrated Miss Beffin (c. 1811) -- The Hottentot Venus (c. 1811) -- The pig-faced lady (1815) -- Giuseppe De Rossi (1816) -- Christopher Lee Sugg, Professor of internal elocution (1816) -- Toby the sapient pig (c. 1820) -- German strongwomen (c. 1821) -- Mr. Handel's experiments (1823) -- Bosco's bullet catch (1827) -- Gouffe, "the man-monkey" (1828) -- Scapiglione, ''the modern Sampson" (c. 1828) -- Cappelli's learned cats (1829) -- Spelterini's living ass (c. 1830) -- The gigantic whale (1831) -- Menagerie of living animals (1832) -- The automaton chess player (1833) -- Simpson at Vauxhall Gardens (1833) -- Martin the lion tamer (1834) -- Joice Heth, aged 161 years! (1835) -- Madam Wood's distaff deceptions (c. 1839) -- An enormous head (c. 1840) -- Nelson the clown (c. 1842) -- Rabi Hirsch Dänemark, mnemonist (c. 1842) -- Robert and his wife (1842) -- The singing mouse (1843) -- Professor Faber's euphonia (c. 1846) -- Tom Thumb at Egyptian Hall (1846) -- Carl Herrmann (1848) -- Quirin Müller, arm wrestler (c. 1848) -- Cantelo's incubator (1851) -- J.H. Anderson, "the wizard of the North" (1851) -- The Chinese lady (1851) -- H. Box Brown, fugitive slave (1854) -- Bosco at Balmoral Castle (1855) -- Savren, "artist in experimental philosophy" (1855) -- Professor Philippe's delusions (1858) -- George Anderson, "the living skeleton" (c. 1862) -- Professor Jacobs, "wizard of wizards" (1862) -- Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser (1862) -- Ethardo, spiral ascensionist (1867) -- Chang & Eng and Millie-Christine, a perplexing pair of pairs (1869) -- Rubini "beheading a lady! (1869) -- The giant Hungarian schoolboy (c. 1870) -- The phantascope, "hundred surprising things" (1872) -- Herrmann the great (1876) -- Bertolotto's industrious fleas (c. 1877) -- Spiderman (1877) -- Lady and General Mite (1889) -- Cinquevalli, "king of the jugglers" (1898).
OCLC: 60821021
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