This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/25/2023
UNTHAN, Carl H. (1848 – 1929). Unthan. N.P.: Jesus del Valle, ca. 1900. Handsome color lithograph pictures the armless German man who was said to have taught himself to play the violin with his feet by the age of ten. Unthan went on to become a remarkable marksman, as well. Full-length central portrait depicts him playing a fiddle strapped to a stool, while three other vignettes show him playing a horn, firing a rifle, and playing cards. See Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women, color plates and cover, Exemplars, p. 236. Unthan performed in concert halls with classical orchestras and added feats of marksmanship and other demonstrations to his private recitals. A canny showman, it was reported that he planned to break a string on his fiddle during his shows, in order to demonstrate how he could restring the instrument with his feet – a surefire applause getter. Unthan wrote his autobiography, posthumously published in English as The Armless Fiddler, a Pediscript, by typing the manuscript with his toes. The book jacket included this choice line: “Uncle Tom’s Cabin is no longer the correct reply to the riddle, “What is the only book not written by the hand of man or woman?” because this autobiography was written by C.H. Unthan, with his foot.”