[BLONDIN] Arsens Blondin. Paris: Affiches Americaines, Ch. Levy, ca. 1882. Half-sheet color lithograph of a tightrope walker clad in an elaborate costume with feathered cap, the large central portrait showing him on the wire high above a waterway, with four smaller vignettes depicting him blindfolded, perched on one leg, with another performer on his back, and playing two trumpets while balancing on a pole, which is itself balanced on the tightrope. 22 ½ x 16”. One long closed tear, margins over-colored; colors bright and fresh; B+. A poster advertising one of the many imitators of the original Charles Blondin. This gentleman crossed the Seine on a tightrope, a simulacrum of Blondin’s famed walk across Niagara Falls. In this image, a hot air balloon floats in the background behind the wire walker, along with a child pulled by a balloon, and a pig.