[Binding] | A woodcut also used to advertise John Rannie and Richard Potter—the first Black ventriloquist

[Binding]
A Ventriloquist. Np, [early 19th century]

Pamphlet of 4 bifolia, sewn (160 x 95 mm). Pictorial wrapper with a hand-colored woodcut vignette depicting a ventriloquist and birds, ruled in decorative woodcut border; wrapper worn at extremities and soiled. Blank book with handwritten recipes in ink and pencil; pages foxed and worn.

An early American blank book. The woodcut featured on the wrapper was frequently used on playbills advertising the ventriloquists Richard Potter and John Rannie. Potter, who has been called America's first Black celebrity, was the first American-born magician to gain acclaim. Dinah, Potter’s mother, was enslaved in Guinea as a teenager and brought to Massachusetts. She was emancipated when the Massachusetts Constitution abolished slavery—decades before the Emancipation Proclamation—and Potter, born in 1783, lived as a free man.

He likely traveled to Europe when he was only ten years old, where he joined a circus and became an apprentice under the Scottish magician John Rannie. The two returned to the United States in 1800, where both grew famous for their ventriloquism, rope dancing, balancing, and acting. Rannie, upon retiring and returning to Scotland in 1811, encouraged Potter to continue as a solo act, which he did to great success. He eventually purchased land in Andover, New Hampshire, where he built his home.

REFERENCE:
Fulton, Jacqui. N.H. Firsts: The Magical World of Richard Potter. New Hampshire Public Radio, 2018

Condition Report:
Condition as described in catalogue entry.

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