SPELTERINI, Maria (1853 – 1912). Spelterini. Circa 1877. Finely rendered lithograph in colors bearing a central half-length portrait of the famed tightrope walker surrounded by vignettes depicting various tricks she performed while walking the rope, including with a bag over her head, firing a small cannon balanced on the rope before her, pedaling a bicycle across the rope, and walking with baskets over both feet. Unevenly trimmed into an oval, approximately 21 x 16 ½”. Old folds reinforced with tape to verso. The only example of this lithograph we have been able to locate. Though little is known of Maria Spelterini’s golden years, she was apparently already on stage by the age of three. Only July 8, 1876, as part of a centennial celebration for the United States, she became the first woman to cross Niagara Falls on a tight rope, a feat she would repeat with varying levels of difficulty, as pictured in this lithograph – manacled, with peach baskets strapped to her feet, and blindfolded.