{"product_id":"antique-cabinet-card-sideshow-cabinet-card-little-people-dog","title":"Antique Sideshow Cabinet Card | Little People \u0026 Dog","description":"\u003cp\u003eHere we have a genuine relic of the American dime-museum age, a cabinet card photograph made at Rich’s studio, 95 Blue Island Avenue, Chicago, in the mid-1890s, back when the city’s West Side was a churning warren of immigrant tenements, storefront amusements, and the strange itinerant trade of the sideshow. This studio was the secret studio to all the coolness we are searching for now. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe image is a quiet stunner. A man and a woman, both of short stature, stand in their finest dress flanking an ornate sculpted pedestal, and perched dead center atop that pedestal, very much the star of the proceedings, sits a small white dog. He holds his straw boater against his chest; she trails an extravagant brocade gown with a train pooled clear across the studio floor. They are posed not as curiosities but as gentry, miniature aristocrats set against a painted backdrop of arches and swagged drapery. That was the whole art of the dime-museum portrait: it sold dignity and spectacle in the very same frame. Look closely and you’ll see the pedestal is doing double duty, lifting the little dog to chest height, a sly compositional trick that frames the performers’ stature without ever stooping to cruelty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat makes this card more than a charming oddity is the studio behind it. Rich’s of Blue Island Avenue was no ordinary neighborhood gallery snapping christenings and wedding parties. This was a working sideshow studio, one of the small West Side operations where dime-museum performers were sent to have their souvenir and pitch cards made, Chicago’s own humbler echo of Charles Eisenmann’s famous Bowery studio in New York. The proof is in the surviving roster. Documented cabinet cards bearing the Rich’s imprint, 95 Blue Island Ave., have surfaced and sold for the following performers:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLulu Baum, Tattooed Lady\u003cbr\u003eA Tattooed Showman\u003cbr\u003eAthelia, “Yucatan Aztec” Pinhead\u003cbr\u003eAnnie Howard, Tattooed Lady\u003cbr\u003eA Circassian Snake Woman\u003cbr\u003eThe Woman with the Waterfalling Mane\u003cbr\u003eA Snake Charmer\u003cbr\u003eLittle Henriette Mortez\u003cbr\u003ePerformer in Top Hat with Trombone (sold by yours truly)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat is an entire dime-museum bill emerging from one tiny studio: tattooed ladies, a microcephalic performer dressed in the standard exoticized patter, a Circassian “snake woman,” a long-hair act, and at least one other billed little-person performer. Our couple steps directly out of that world. They remain, for now, unidentified by name, but they keep very good company, and the hunt is half the fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe unusual cabinet card measures about 6 1\/2\" tall, and 4\" wide. The antique photograph is in pretty good condition given its age. There is a slight dent in the top center and a small horizontal crease in the bottom right.  Please see all pics as they are part of the description. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI ship FedEx to street addresses in the continental USA only (no PO boxes). The rare cabinet card will be shipping housed in a hard sleeve. Free shipping on the unusual 19th century photograph.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA standing couple, a little white dog on a pedestal, and a vanished Chicago studio that quietly photographed the city’s sideshow underworld. That’s all the business.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mad Van Antiques","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43127089528909,"sku":null,"price":400.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0116\/3637\/5610\/files\/IMG_9239.jpg?v=1781495073","url":"https:\/\/madvanantiques.com\/products\/antique-cabinet-card-sideshow-cabinet-card-little-people-dog","provider":"Mad Van Antiques","version":"1.0","type":"link"}