Placard (_continued_)--The old Exhibition--Celebrities of
the day--Tussaud’s mummy--Poetic eulogism--Removal to Baker
Street--The Iron Duke’s rejoinder--Madame de Malibran.
[Illustration: DANIEL O’CONNELL]
The old placard next proceeds to enumerate some of the then modern
celebrities in the Exhibition as follows:
Portrait likeness of the Rev. John Clowes, of St. John’s
Church, Manchester, and late Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge, taken (with permission) from life within the last
ten years; the Artist, Mr. J. P. Kemble, in the character of
Hamlet; the celebrated Mrs. Siddons in the character of Queen
Catherine; Dey of Algiers; full-length Portrait of Daniel
O’Connell, esq., M.P., taken with permission (from Mr. P.
Turnerelli’s celebrated bust), for which Mr. O’Connell gave
sittings in Dublin; Sir Walter Scott, taken from life in
Edinburgh, by Madame Tussaud, which was seen by thousands, and
also honored by his approbation; Lord Byron, taken from life in
Italy.
_The other subjects comprising this unique exhibition,
consisting of Characters in full dress as large as life,
correctly executed, may be classed as follows_:
The late Royal Family of France, taken from life, viz., the
King, Queen, and Dauphin; Pope Pius VI., Henry IV. of France,
Duc de Sully, M. Voltaire, Napoleon Buonaparte, Madame Joseph
Buonaparte, Cardinal Fesche, one of Buonaparte’s Mameluke
Guards, and Prince Roustan, Buonaparte’s favorite Mameluke.
REMARKABLE CHARACTERS, SUBJECTS, &c.
An old Coquette, who teased her husband’s life out. Two
beautiful Infants. A small cabinet of Portraits in wax by the
celebrated Courcius of Paris, viz., the Dying Philosopher,
Socrates. Death of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. M. Voltaire.
Shepherd and Shepherdess.
Biographical and descriptive Sketches may be had at the place
of Exhibition, price Sixpence each.
Madame TUSSAUD and SONS, in offering this little notice to
the Public, have endeavoured to blend utility and amusement.
It contains an outline of the history of each character
represented in the Exhibition, which will not only greatly
increase the pleasure to be derived from a mere view of the
figures, but will also convey to the minds of young persons
much biographical knowledge, a branch of education universally
allowed to be one of the highest importance.
_Admittance 1s. Children under 8 Years of Age 6d.; second room
6d._
_Tickets for Six Weeks not transferable, 5s. Open every day
from 11 till 4 o’clock, in the Evening from 7 till 10._
The following highly interesting figures and objects, in
consequence of the Peculiarity of their appearance, are placed
in an adjoining situation, and are well worth the attention
of artists and amateurs, taken by order of the National
Assembly by Madame Tussaud--The Celebrated John Marat, one
of the leaders of the French Revolution, taken immediately
after his assassination by Charlotte Corde. The following
heads--Robespierre, Carrier, Fouquier de Tinville, and Hébert
were taken immediately after execution. The celebrated Count
de Lorge, who was confined twenty years in the Bastille, taken
from life. Mirabeau. Also, Phrenological Portraits of
STEWART AND HIS WIFE,
Who were executed in Edinburgh on the 13th of August, 1829,
having confessed to the murder of Seven Persons by means of
Poison, which they familiarly called doctoring.
Casts of CORDER and HOLLOWAY, taken from their faces.
CURIOUS AND INTERESTING RELICS, &c.
The shirt of Henry IV. of France in which he was assassinated
by Ravaillac, with various original documents relative to that
transaction. A small model of the original French Guillotine,
with its apparatus. Model of the Bastille in Paris in its entire
state.
AN EGYPTIAN MUMMY.
Proved by the Hieroglyphics to be the body of the Princess of
Memphis, who lived in the time of Sesostris, King of Egypt,
a.m. 2528, 1491 years before Christ, being actually 3328 years
old.
(_Phair_, Printer, 67, Great Peter Street, Westminster.)
A further placard is headed as follows:
REMOVAL POSTPONED TILL FURTHER NOTICE.
The Flattering Success with which this Exhibition continues to
be honored, (the Promenade being Crowded every Evening), the
very general desire expressed by Thousands for it to remain
some time longer, (its merits becoming more generally known),
being acknowledged to be the most Splendid, and, at the same
time, the most Instructive to Youth, (induces the Proprietors
to obey the general wish.) It will remain in consequence till
further Notice.
The Exhibition is, therefore, located in “The Great Assembly Room of the
late Royal London Bazaar, Gray’s Inn Road.” There it remained till early
in March, 1835, on the 21st of which month it removed to its quarters in
Baker Street.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE EXHIBITION IN THE EARLY DAYS AT BAKER
STREET
From J. Mead’s “London Interiors,” published in 1842.]
As for the Assembly Room, it appears that on Tuesday, the 29th of March,
directly after Madame Tussaud left, it was put up for sale at the Mart by
the famous auctioneer, George Robins.
A lady, on viewing the Exhibition when it was in Gray’s Inn Road, wrote
the following excellent verses:
I stand amid a breathless throng,
Though animation’s light is here;
Expression, too, that might belong
To creatures of a nobler sphere;
Where’er I turn my dazzled view,
I marvel what Art’s hand can do!
Here are the lips, and cheeks, and eyes,
The folded hands--the beaming brow--
Those graces Nature’s self supplies--
All burst upon my vision now!
And is it _fiction_?--can it be
That these are not _reality_?
The eye, where centres Genius’ light;
The lips, where Eloquence presides;--
The cheek with Beauty’s roses bright;
The breast, where Passion darkly hides;
The Warrior’s pride, the Cynic’s sneer,
From Nature’s book are copied here!
_Painting_ her meed of praise may claim
From Fame’s proud trump or Minstrel’s lyre,
And around _sculpture’s_ gifted name
May burn the _poet’s_ words of fire;
But _Tussaud_! Both these arts divine
Must yield in _novelty_ to _thine_.
Thou bring’st before our wond’ring eyes,
Modell’d in truth, each gone-by scene
That Hist’ry’s varied page supplies;--
Here still _they_ flourish, fresh and green,
Defying Time’s oblivious power,
Who long have pass’d Life’s fitful hour.
Modern Prometheus! who can’st give,
Like him of old, to human form
All _but_ the life;--here _thou_ wilt live
And triumph o’er the “creeping worm”
That sullies all things--pale Decay!
_Thy features_ ne’er can pass away![2]
A nobler Trophy far is thine,
Than “storied urn,” by stranger hands,
Rear’d (in thy now adopted clime),
And higher reverence commands;
These forms--to which thine Art has lent
Life’s truth--shall be _thy monument_!
MRS. CORNWELL BARON-WILSON.
It is interesting to note that one of the first visitors to the
Exhibition in its settled home at Baker Street was the great Duke of
Wellington. He was there on Wednesday, the 26th of August, and after that
date was frequently to be seen walking through the rooms, his favourite
models being those of Queen Victoria and the dead Napoleon.
Indeed, the Duke requested Mr. Joseph Tussaud, the elder son of Madame
Tussaud, to let him know whenever a new figure of exceptional interest
was added to the Exhibition--_not forgetting the Chamber of Horrors_.
[Illustration: JOSEPH TUSSAUD
Elder son of Madame Tussaud, born 1796, died 1864.]
Mr. Tussaud ventured a remark expressing his surprise that the Duke
should be interested in such figures, whereupon the old warrior turned
upon him with the rejoinder, “Well, do they not represent _fact_?”
Other models added about this time included those of Nicholas I of
Russia, Louis Philippe, King of the French, the Duke of Cumberland,
Talleyrand, and Hume, the historian.
A tragic occurrence took place shortly after the Exhibition had taken
up its abode in London, and led to its permanent establishment in the
Metropolis. At that time Madame de Malibran, the eldest daughter of the
Spanish singer, Manuel Garcia, was idolised by the populace as a gifted
songstress. She died suddenly during a festival held at Manchester on the
23rd of September, 1836, in the twenty-eighth year of her age.
[Illustration: MADAME MARIE FELICITA DE MALIBRAN
Famous opera singer, daughter of the Spanish singer, Manual Garcia, made
her début in London in 1825 and after a successful European tour reached
New York, when she married a local French merchant, M. Malibran, after
his bankruptcy returning to the stage and greater honors.]
Madame Tussaud placed her figure in the Exhibition with all speed, and
the numerous admirers of the _prima donna_ flocked to see it. The idea
there and then took hold of Madame Tussaud’s mind that the Exhibition
would command perennial success by being constantly brought up to date
through the adding of the portraits of people whose names were on
everybody’s lips. This principle has been faithfully observed ever since.
In the early days at Baker Street “the Hours of Exhibition,” as the
Catalogue quaintly puts it, were “from 11 in the Morning till 5, and from
7 in the Evening till 10. Brilliantly illuminated at 8.” When the place
was closed, seats were provided in the vestibule, and it was no uncommon
sight to see from fifty to a hundred persons waiting for the reopening of
the doors at 7 p.m.
[2] Alluding to the exquisite figure of the artist’s self.