(Ventriloquism) | "Rational, Pleasing, and Scientific | Intellectual to the Mind!"

(Ventriloquism)

A group of five playbills

Eagle Inn ... Mr. Lee Sugg. Hinckley: Ward, 1813. Letterpress playbill (310 x 160 mm). Printed in several typefaces and sizes, two lines drawn on verso with holograph annotation reading "the Reader is desired to double this paper up where the lines are drawn upon the back"; old folds along lines, a little browning to head and foot, a few spots. — Mr. Charles ... Mr. Michael Frederick's Large Room. Harrisburg: np, 1820. Letterpress playbill (280 x 225 mm). Mat burn, old folds, light offsetting, browning to margins. — Theatre-Royal, Plymouth ... Signor Meyer of Wurtemberg. Plymouth: Nettleton, 1841. Letterpress playbill (420 x 211 mm). Old folds, some offsetting to foot. — Lyceum Hall ... Sig. Blitz. [Dorchester]: np, 1845. Letterpress playbill (497 x 185 mm). Three woodcut vignettes to head, printed in a profusion of type sizes, leaves with date of performance and extended playbill laid down on initial broadside; short marginal tears, a few spots, initial playbill browned. — Harrington, [Jonathan]. Washington Hall, Chatham ... The Veteran Professor Harrington ... Assisted by Dixon E. Watson. Boston: F.A. Searle, 1875. Letterpress playbill (528 x 182 mm) printed recto and verso. On recto, two large engraved portraits of Harrington and Watson, text printed vertically and horizontally, recto with six engraved vignettes; three old folds, long closed tear along second fold, chips and short tears to margins, a few small holes, two affecting text, spots.

These attractive broadsides for ventriloquy performances show the early form's connection to both conjuring and the circus—billed alongside them are "chromantic illusions," "Airy Phantoms," as well as "the Celebrated dance of Six Dinner Plates!" Particularly entertaining is the 1875 playbill for Professor Harrington. The verso features an illustration of a disgruntled man, captioned "The Man who never goes to hear Harrington," followed by the advertisement: "Remember, this is a reliable, legitimate Entertainment for Old and Young, and not to be confounded with other floating trash. We study the character of our audiences. Our motto—to please."

Sold as group lot, not subject to return.