Early French Wooden and Paper Mache Two-Figure Balancing Toy

Live Auction

10" (25 cm.) 19" overall 3" figures. A wooden block box that unhinges to form a series of steps, or stands upright to form a tall multi-level platform has original cream and patterned green paper cover, and supports two paper mache acrobats with painted hair, facial features, decorative garlands in hair, cloth costumes and oversized feet with painted shoes, that are posed holding onto two long cloth-covered poles. When the block is arranged in different manners, the acrobats perform various balancing or acrobatic acts. Condition: excellent, perfectly preserved. Comments: French, circa 1840.