(Animals, Performing) | Performing quadrupeds, bipeds, and winged creatures

(Animals, Performing)

Les Animaux savants, ou les exercices de chevaux de M. M. Franconi, du cerf Coco… Par Madame B[ertin], née de V[eriel]l. Paris: De l'imprimerie de P. Didot l'Ainé, 1816

Oblong 4to (143 x 222 mm). Half-title, hand-colored engraved title-page with Nepveu imprint, letterpress title-page, 11 hand-colored engraved plates after J.D. Dugourc; scattered foxing to text. Original printed wrappers (with Nepveu imprint dated 1816) cut round and laid down on tan cloth boards.

First edition, each chapter illustrated with an engraving. "Le cheval aéronaute" (pp. 60–67) is an account of Testu-Brissy's ascent on horseback in a balloon. The circus chapters were later published, slightly revised, a sLe Cirque Olympique (see following lot). Mme. Bertin was a pseudonym used by this publisher.

The celebrated Italian Franconi family stood out in the field of circus equestrian displays thanks to Antonio Franconi (1738-1836). They named their theater, built by François Delpont in the Jardin des Capucines along the rue Saint-Honoré in 1807, the Cirque Olympique. The second theatre to bear this name was on the Faubourg du Temple. The origins of this circus go back to 1780 and Astley's horses, but the novelty of these displays piqued the curiosity of Parisians. Antonio Franconi then joined forces with his father, a man equally talented in the art of training animals to perform.

PROVENANCE:

Bibliothek Held[platz], Vienna (faint library stamp on half-title) — G.A. Grieshammer, Leipzig (bookseller's ticket laid down on half-title)