CHE-MAH, THE CHINESE DWARF [carte de visite (CDV)] by [Che-Mah; Charles Eisenmann (photographer)] - 1885

New York: Charles Eisenmann, 1885. First Edition. Photograph. Very good. [1880s]. Carte de visite (albumen photographic print mounted on card), approximately 4 1/8 x 2 1/2 inches. Photographer's stamp on verso. Signed by Che Mah in blue on verso in Chinese characters and Roman letters. Light foxing in caption area of recto and edges of verso, light wear to photograph. Very good to near fine.

Carte de visite portrait of Che-Mah (1838-1926), the "Chinese Dwarf," and an unidentified man of normal stature. In 1881, facing the the retirement of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Thumb and the recent death of Commodore Nutt, P. T. Barnum was scouting for new little-person talent and found Che Mah in London, where he had been performing for a year. Che Mah signed with Barnum and worked with him until Barnum's death in 1891. He went on to perform for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and various sideshows and dime museums in the Midwest before retiring to Knox, Indiana around 1901. Although he was said to come from a farm in Ningbo, China, there is some question as to Che Mah's true origins. In his 1936 memoirs, THIS WAY TO THE BIG SHOW, retired Barnum and Bailey Publicity Director and circus collector Dexter W. Fellows declared matter-of-factly that "the Chinese dwarf . . . was a London Jew."