This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/25/2023
ANDERSON, John Henry (1814 – 74). THE AZTECS. N.P., [1853]. Full-length lithograph of the famed Scottish conjurer together with Maximo and Bartola, captioned, “These wonderful beings were brought to North America in 1849 by Valasquez, a Spaniard who states that he carried them off at the hazard of his life from the mysterious and unknown city of Ixamaya in central South America where this Lilliputian race has for many centuries been worshiped by the inhabitants as sacred objects.” 9 7/8 x 8 1/4”. Minor wear and chipping at edges. See Jay’s Journal of Anomalies, p. 87, and MAGIC: 1400s – 1950s, p. 22. The Aztecs were, in Ricky Jay’s own words, “…sweet and charming… microcephalics or, in carnival jargon, “pinheads.” The Aztec Lilliputians, neither Aztec nor Lilliputian, were the subjects of an extraordinary hoax – reason enough, one supposes, for a master of deception like John Henry Anderson to become involved in their phenomenal career.”