Chinese Dancing Bear and Magic Lantern Show, 1859, Paper

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An original antique steel engraving, uncolored, with two chinese street entertainments, captioned "danse de l'ours" and "lanterne magique". In the … Read more An original antique steel engraving, uncolored, with two chinese street entertainments, captioned "danse de l'ours" and "lanterne magique". In the upper vignette a bear stands upright on its hind legs on a chain, holding a long pole topped with a trident, while a small monkey in a little coat holds a mask up to its face in front of a showman's chest hung with masks. A man in a cap and long coat on the left holds a tall staff, and on the right a man in a broad hat beats a gong. The lower vignette shows a magic lantern show housed in a tall box crowned by a tiered pagoda roof: a child standing on a stool looks through a round viewing hole, a showman sits on a high chair at the left, a man in a long robe leans on the box, and a passer by with a basket on his shoulder walks past on the right. The captions translate as the bear's dance and magic lantern. Below the second caption the publisher's line reads "publié par furne, paris" (published by furne, paris). No printer's line is engraved. At the lower left of the lower image a faint signature, partly lost in the shading, reads "alp. Boilly", the signature of the engraver alphonse boilly. The source is voyage en asie et en afrique by mm. Eyriès and alfred jacobs, a volume of the histoire générale des voyages by dumont d'urville, d'orbigny, eyriès and a. Jacobs. It was published in paris by furne et cie, éditeurs, 45 rue saint-andré-des-arts, and its title page is dated m dccc lix (1859). Like the other plates in the book, this one is a steel engraving with a french caption. The two scenes pair naturally with the companion plate of puppets and rope dancers from the same book. Condition: complete sheet, edges straight and without nicks. Light, uneven toning, soiled along the bottom, left and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed. See less