The Public Life of W F Wallett, The Queen’s Jester: An Autobiography (of Forty Years Professional Experience and Travels in the United Kingdom, The United States of America (including California), Canada, South America, Mexico, the West Indies, &c.

Third edition.  188pp, with portrait frontispiece. Rebound brown cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering on the spine. Text block edges speckled. 12mo.   Cloth slightly rubbed and rounded at corners and ends of a lightly sunned spine.  Indentation on rear panel.  Previous owner’s initials inked on front paste down.  Half title page soiled, with a paper scar and previous owner’s stamp; a little soiling and chipping on for edge of first few leaves, small stamp from Eliot College Library on verso of title page else internally neat and clean.

William Frederick Wallett  (1806-1892) was a popular and successful English circus clown of the Victorian era, performing for Queen Victoria and achieving some ‘modest celebrity’ in the United States.  He often performed with and assisted in the management of Pablo Franque’s (the equally successful and first black circus owner in the UK) travelling circus.  Fascinating and hard to find.