(Automata) | Early American playbill for an automata musicians

(Automata)

Wonders of Art. Lancaster: Wm. Albright, 1833

Letterpress playbill (540 x 440 mm). Six woodcut vignettes, decorative border, date and place of event handwritten in black ink; old horizontal fold, small tears along fold with some loss at center, chips to head, short closed tears to left margin. Matted and framed.

Featuring six automata musicians, including Mons. Flaminingo, Signior Shahabaham, and Signor Bibberinno, who were to perform a musical act in which each automaton would imitate "the Banjo," "five instruments at one time," "the small violin," "the Bass Violin," while one would play "the Cymbals, and [perform] a variety of amusing feats."

"This early American playbill featured magic in conjunction with a large variety of exhibitions: automata, fireworks, and ghost-show magic-lantern projections known as phantasmagoria. A popular quasiscientific conjuring effect known as the Philosophical Swan was also demonstrated" (Magic).

REFERENCE:

Magic, p. 39