This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/30/2022
[SWORD SWALLOWER]. CLIFFORD, Edith. Three cabinet card portraits of Mlle. Clifford, Champion Sword Swallower. N.p., ca. 1900s/10s. Three photographs on printed card mounts advertising the “champion sword swallower of the world.” Includes a photo of Clifford holding a sword, a bust portrait, and one pose in a natural landscape. Each approx. 6 ½ x 4 ¼”. Two inscribed and signed on the verso by Clifford on verso. Clifford learned sword swallowing at age 13 from Delno Fritz, Barnum & Bailey’s sword swallower. Clifford toured Europe extensively as well as the United States, including with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey in the circus’s first combined year, 1919, where Houdini saw her perform. She was profiled in Houdini’s Miracle Mongers and Their Methods (1920).