Mynheer Wybrnad Lolkes, the celebrated Man in Miniature

n.p. C. Johnson. [1793].

Portrait of Wybrand Lolkes and his wife, full length, the husband directed to the right, and the wife in frontal view but looking left. Scene set in an interior. Etching on paper. Mounted on white card, 255x197mm. (mount measures 330x270). Crease to top edge of mount but print is in excellent condition. This illustration to The Wonderful Magazine (London, 1822). Lolkes was a celebrated dwarf (he was 27 inches high and weighed 56lbs) who, in the manner of the time was exhibited as something of a curiosity. However, he lived an apparently happy life, married to a wife who was a (by the standards of the time) statuesque 5 feet 7 inches. The Wonderful Magazine for which this etching was made was a short lived journal which lasted for only one year (1793) and brought together "authentic accounts of the most extraordinary productions, events, and occurrences, in providence, nature and art. Consisting entirely of such curious matters as come under the denominations of Miraculous! Queer! Odd! Strange! Supernatural! Whimsical! Absurd! Out of the Way! and Unaacountable!"