This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/15/2025
CHUNG Ling Soo (W.E. Robinson, 1861 – 1918). Chung Ling Soo. A Few Facial Expressions During the Fire Trick. Birmingham: James Upton Ltd., ca. 1908. Twelve bust portraits of Soo with different comedic expressions fill the image, bounded by a printed wooden frame. 30 x 20". Linen backed. Minor over-coloring to borders. A-.
Soo's mouth and teeth were so damaged by his Fire Trick – in which he lit cotton batting ablaze in his mouth, then produced sparks, black soot, and eventually ribbons and a barber pole from it – that the portraits on this poster (and others) do not show him smiling for the camera.