[LAUREL, Stan (1890 - 1965)]. Wombwell's Royal and Unrivalled Menagerie! Antique Playbill from Stan Laurel's Collection. 
Large theatrical playbill from the collection of the English comic actor, writer and film director, most famous for his role in the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, and who, with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy, appeared in 107 short films, feature films and cameo roles. 10 x 30". Mounted to rigid backing, with creases, stains and small chips throughout. 

The broadside announces an exhibition in East Dereham and Norwich [UK] of "Wombwell's Royal and Unrivalled Menagerie!" a 19th century exhibition of rare and unusual animals produced by George Wombwell (1777 -1850), the most famous Victorian showman and Menagerist. The featured animals include "The Rarest and Most Singular species in the Animal World, denominated by Naturalist as the Fan-Tailed Peophagus or Yak!" as swell as the "Gnu, or Horned Horse" and "The Great Mandril or, the Blue Ribb'd Face Satyr." 

Around 1800 Wombwell moved to London and in 1804 became a shoemaker in Soho. However, he soon began to buy exotic animals from ships that came from Africa, Australia and South America, and collected a whole menagerie and put them on display in Soho. In 1810 he founded the Wombwell's Travelling Menagerie and began to tour the fairs of Britain. By 1839 it totalled fifteen wagons, and was accompanied by a brass band. His travelling menagerie included elephants, giraffes, a gorilla, a hyena, kangaroo, leopards, 6 lions, llamas, monkeys, ocelots, onagers, ostriches, panthers, a rhino ("the real unicorn of scripture"), 3 tigers, wildcats and zebras. However, because many of the animals were from hotter climes, many of them died in the British climate. Sometimes Wombwell could profitably sell the body to a taxidermist or a medical school, other times he chose to exhibit the dead animal as a curiosity. He was invited to the royal court on five occasions to exhibit his animals, three times before Queen Victoria. In the Sherlock Holmes short story The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger the lion tamer, Ronder is described thus: "Ronder, of course, was a household word. He was the rival of Wombwell". 
 

Mounted to rigid backing, with creases, stains and small chips throughout.