?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(MUSIC AND THEATRE--CIRCUS.) JOHNSON, WILLIAM HENRY. Zip, the What Is It? Carte-de-visite, showing a four foot tall black boy holding a tall pole. New York, circa 1870's
a rare carte de visite of one of p. t. barnum's most successful and longest running creations, 'zip, the what is it?' Zip was in reality William Henry Johnson, an unfortunate African American boy with a tiny microcephalic head. Zip was described by Barnum's biographer as 'a Negro boy whose cone-shaped skull tapered to a crown no larger than a baseball. He shaved his head daily, but let a top-knot grow, until he looked like a sea anemone.' Zip was with Barnum for decades. He would grunt and grimace 'and if given a cigar, would eat it.'
