Lemonade & the wax severed head of John the Baptist in Paris.

[Wax figures] / [Paris]. Par Permission du Roy. Messieurs et Dames, Vous êtes avertis, qu’il est arrivé en cette Ville la Cour d’Hérode, qui traite avec magnificence tous les Princes & les Princesses de son Royaume. L’on voit le Jugement de Salem, le Trône d’Hérode, & la Décolation de S. Jeane-Baptiste, la belle Hérodias, qui tient la tête dans un plat, qu’elle apporte à sa mere; & le Corps de S. Jean-Baptiste, qui verse le sang comme le naturel: l’on voit celui qui tranché la tête; les Nôces de Cana en Galilée; les Pelerins d’Emaüs. Toutes ces Figures sont aussi hautes que le naturel en Cire, habillées en Or & en Argent. Cela se voit tous les jours & à toutes heures. On ne prend que 4 sols. A Paris: de l’Imprimerie de Valleyre pere, [1734]. [17.7 x 11.5 cm], [1] f. letterpress handbill, with woodcut arms of Louis XV. Wrinkles, folds, with small holes at folds, staining, verso dusty.

Unrecorded handbill from 1734 Paris advertising a display of life-size wax figures of the Beheading of John the Baptist and other biblical scenes. The exhibition was held at the café of a certain lemonade seller (“lemonadier”) named Tocquez, which was near Place Mauber on the rue Galande in the Latin Quarter.

Tocquez’s display is a relatively early instance of a public waxwork exhibit in Paris, following from the success of Antoine Benoist’s royal portraits in wax (1680s) but dating well before the work of Madame Tussaud (1761-1850). I have not located any other mention of Tocquez’s exhibition.

The text of the handbill can be translated: “By Permission of the King. Ladies and Gentlemen, you are hereby notified that the ‘Court of Herod’ has arrived in this City, treating with magnificence all the Princes and Princesses of his Kingdom. One can see the Judgment of Salem [Salomé], Herod’s Throne, and the Beheading of St. John the Baptist; the beautiful Herodias [Salomé], holding the head on a platter, which she brings to her mother [Salomé and Herodias are confused here]; and the Body of St. John the Baptist, shedding blood as if in real life: One can see the one who cut off the head; the Wedding at Cana in Galilee; the Pilgrims of Emmaus. All these figures are life-size in wax, adorned in gold and silver. They can be seen every day and at all hours. The admission price is only 4 sols.”

OCLC and KVK locate no examples of this handbill.

*D. M. Mitchell, “Fabricating Enchantment: Antoine Benoist’s wax courtiers in Louis XIV’s Paris,” Sculpture Journal, vol. 32, no. 4 (2023), pp 531-44.