Monsieur Gouffe | The Man-Monkey

Monsieur Gouffe

Theatre, Sheffield. The Wonder of the Age. Monsieur Gouffe ... The Island Ape. Sheffield: H. A. Bacon, [1828] 

Broadside playbill (475 x 160 mm). Printed on light gray paper in an assortment of types, large woodcut showing Monsieur Gouffe in his ape costume; not examined out of frame, laid down, old folds, some offsetting and minor soiling, possible restoration along lower left margin. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglas. 

This provincial bill of 1828 features his major theatrical vehicle, "The Island Ape." Gouffe, we are told, "will exhibit his Wonderful Tricks, Leaps, Balance &c., which have excited the Curiosity and Astonishment of the Metropolis, and raised a doubt in the mind of Thousands Whether He Be A Monkey Or A Man" (EE, p. 84). 

REFERENCE:

Exemplars, p. 250; EE, pp. 84-85