Midgets (8 results)

Condition: Good. 17 p. in English and 15 p. in French. 17 cm. 11 b&w photos, including one of "Countess Nichol" using a Royal Vaccuum Cleaner (advertisement on opposite page). Stapled pamphlet. Steples rusing. Traces's the "count's" life story, marriage, birth of son Philippe Jr. The couple are the "King and Queen of all Midgets" and Philippe Jr. "The only child born of Midgets." Their home was opened to the public as a museum.

Couverture souple. Condition: Très bon. ca 1940, 16, 16 p. Photos. Anglais-français tête-bêche. code 1672.

Fotopostkarte mit 5 Liliputanern, rückseitig in Tinte dem Kapellmeister WILLI VOLLMEYER mit Dank für seine liebenswürdige Mitwirkung gewidmet und signiert SUSE WICHMUTH mit Ort und Datum Paderborn, d. 31.I.(19)34.

Handbill, 190 x 130 mm. on yellow paper. General Tom Thumb (Charles Stratton) is generally seen as the benchmark for dwarf height, though mostly due to Barnum's wildly successful promotion of him from c. 1843 onwards. In fact there were a number of other dwarfs who claimed to be smaller than Tom Thumb.

Handbill, 210 x 130 mm. chip to top corner and laid down. With General Mite, aged 14, weight 9 pounds and Lucia Zarate, aged 15, weight 4¾ pounds. Together with Admiral Dot and Miss Jennie Quigley. Even allowing for the usual hyperbole, the claims made here are extraordinary.

A rare and fragile handbill, 190 x 125 mm. "The Don. being only 3 spans and a half, or 29 inches high, 42 years old, well formed, beautiful and intellectual countenance, speaks three languages." He was attached to the court of Ferdinand VIIth in Madrid for 12 years and came out of retirement following the report of an exhibition of a small child exciting the curiosity of the world.

Broadside, 455 x 280 mm. old crease. Henrick Cristian Brockstead, aged 22 and 36 inches high weighing 36 pounds, Maria Catherina Brockstead, aged 18, 32 inches high and 22 pounds, and Christian Henrick Brockstead, aged 13, 28 inches high and 16 pounds were siblings, three of the six children of Peter and Maria Brockstead of Hostein, North Germany. They were widely exhibited and "a drama was composed for them, and so well was their performance received that they became as celebrated for their dramatic talent as for their diminutive beauty, grace and charm." The broadside includes copies of their certificates of baptism, vouchers of their talent from various continental courts, and two extensive newspaper reports dated 1844.

Calligraphy in black and red ink on drawing cardboard (56,5 x 68,4 cm), matted (63 x 79 cm). A homage to Otto von Bismarck (1815-98) on the occasion of his 80th birthday, paid by Emil Ritter's troupe of performing dwarfs. Bismarck had been forced to resign as chancellor of the German Empire five years previously, and the aged statesman was fighting to shape his image for posterity. After a vote to send him a congratulatory birthday telegram had fallen through in the Reichstag, where Bismarck enjoyed little support, some 400 German cities immediately declared him an honorary citizen - a prelude to the Bismarck mania that would seize Germany after his death three years later. The present congratulatory address contains the signatures, birthdays, and sizes (between 70 and 120 cms) of all members of the troupe. One of the best-known and most expensize dwarf acts of the time, they also enjoyed considerable fame and success in America, where they were billed as "The Ritter Midgets". - Corners bumped; some duststaining and foxing.