This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/28/2023
[BARNUM] ZHAN Shichai (1840s–1893). WOOD’S MUSEUM. CHANG THE CHINESE GIANT. New York: Metropolitan Printing and Engraving Estab-lishment, ca. 1870. Letterpress broadside for the famed giant and his wife Kin-Foo’s appearance at the “authorized successor to Barnum’s American Museum,” advertised on a bill bordered by silhouettes of exotic animals, including a Dodo bird, and further heralding the appearance of related dramatic turns and sideshow acts, among its “one million wonders!” Framed and matted to 31 × 13"; tape stains, tears and losses visible, but not examined out of frame.
Chang, reportedly standing over eight feet high, began touring the world as a young man in the 1860s, earning his living exhibiting himself in Europe, Australia, and America. He retired from the stage in 1878, settling in England where he opened a Chinese tea house and import business.