[Bunker, Chang and Eng]:

$1,250 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

ENG-CHANG [caption title]. A rare and attractive promotional print of Chang and Eng, the conjoined twins whose popularity in Europe and America in the 1830s gave birth to the phrase "Siamese Twins." Born near Bangkok in 1811, the conjoined twins lived and worked with their mother until they encountered the Scottish merchant and "unofficial diplomat" Robert Hunter in 1824. After several years, he was able to cajole them into accompanying him on a five-year tour of Europe and the United States. They arrived first in Boston in August of 1829 and then swiftly moved on to Great Britain in November; by December of that year they were being displayed at the Egyptian Hall. The twins' role was not only to stand and be gawked at; they were healthy and athletic young men, and entertained audiences by playing sports and speaking with visitors. They eventually broke from their erstwhile managers in the mid-1830s and continued touring and performing in North America and Europe under their own auspices. After becoming their own bosses, the twins reworked their public image to be more mature and cultured, answering audience questions in a parlor discussion setting or playing chess and other games, as evidenced in the present print. The pair settled down in North Carolina in 1839, where they married sisters and lived quite comfortably for many years as slave-holding plantation owners. As their family grew and proceeds from their tour dwindled, they returned to the stage briefly in the 1850s a

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