The Ricky Jay Collection Part III

[AZTECS]. The Aztecs, The Earthmen, & A Concert. [London]: R. S. Francis, [ca. 1854]. Small two-color pictorial letterpress broadside for an exhibition featuring “Aztec Lilliputians” (Maximo and Bartolo, the “Reputed Gods of Iximaya”), the “Earthmen or Erdmanniges,” and a “splendid vocal & instrumental concert” at Leicester Square. Bearing four corner images of standing attestation figures and a wood-engraved central image of the two young “Earthmen” seated closely together and costumed in “the skins of animals, among which the Jackal preponderates.” The purported “Erdmanniges” are “a Race of People only 3 ½ feet high, who burrow under the Earth, subsisting upon Insects and Plants — discovered far up the Orange River, in South Africa.” Framed and matted to 19 ½ x 14 ½”. Creases, toning, spotting and fading. Not examined out of frame.