Cabinet card portrait of the one-legged circus acrobat, Georg Fabig, evidently issued by his Berlin talent agent, W. A. Schaller, whose rubber stamp appears on the verso. The item was part of the collection of the late Johnny Fox (1953-2017), the celebrated sword swallower, sleight-of-hand artist, and proprietor of the Freakatorium / El Museo Loco, the first dime museum to appear in New York since the closing of Hubert's Museum in 1969. Located in a Lower East Side storefront from 1999 to 2005, the Freakatorium housed a collection of oddities, relics, photographs, and ephemera largely relating to human anomalies and sideshow performers.

Berlin: W. A. Schaller, Theater-Agentur, [ca. 1870s]. Cabinet card (albumen photographic print mounted on card), approximately 6 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches. Printed caption, "Georg Fabig, einbeiniger Handacrobat," pasted in lower margin. Subject's autograph signature and rubber stamp of W. A. Schaller theater agency on verso. Mild wear and fading. Near fine.

W. C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera is a Brooklyn, New York-based firm specializing in printed and manuscript materials relating to avant-garde literature, social movements, and unusual currents in science, religion, and the performing arts.

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