Astley, Philip | The final performance of Astley's "Wonderful Little Horse"

Astley, Philip

[The Little Learned Horse]. Lambeth: S. Tibson, 1799

Letterpress playbill (697 x 240 mm). Printed in black on blue paper, in a profusion of type sizes, with three woodcut vignettes depicting Astley's entertainments; chips and short closed tear to left margin, short closed tears to center affecting one woodcut, some browning and rubbing. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglass; not examined out of frame.

Astley's Amphitheatre, the origins of the modern circus, was famed for its acrobatics, clowning, and equestrian performances. In addition to his standard circus acts, Astley regularly exhibited a "Little Learned Horse" named Billy, which would perform feats of mathematics and orthography for the audience. The broadside announces Billy's final performances: "the Wonderful Little Horse … will appear at the Theatre … and then be withdrawn forever!"

Billy lived long after his retirement, outliving Astley himself. He was then auctioned off to someone who had no knowledge of his past, and worked pulling a cart before one of Astley's performers recognized him: he "cued the the horse by clicking his fingernails, as he had done in exhibitions. The horse confirmed his identity by tapping his foreleg. He was repurchased and taken home, where he resumed and even enlarged his remarkable repertoire. In old age, Billy could still ungirth his own saddle and wash his feet. He could serve tea, taking a kettle of boiling water off the fire and carrying a complete equipage. When he died at age forty-two, his hide was … fashioned into a special-effects thunder-drum, used for many years in the same amphitheatre where he had performed" (EE).

REFERENCE:

EE, p. 60